Words of the Heart
by ShadowGrace
Summary: Emily Bryson was a head-turner with her beauty and musical skill. One accident, though, changes her life forever. She can no longer hear anything that is spoken to her. Now, she believes that she is damaged, and that no one could want her. In the windy city, she meets a rock star wannabe who could, very possibly, be everything that she ever hoped for. Experimental story. Rated T.
1. Meeting Forever

_**Full Summary:**__** Emily Bryson, daughter of the town's beauty queen, had good things going for her. She was beautiful, she was well-spoken, and she had a knack for playing her guitar by ear. At the age of eleven, her life changes. In an accident that should have never happened, Emily loses something very dear to her – her hearing. Now, at nineteen, she's still living at home and working in her mother's shop. Life is menial. Life is boring. Until she meets someone by the name of Derek Stanton, who, in one touch, could promise her happiness. The problem? The Stanton family isn't the only one out there, and their rivals aren't happy with them or the way things are going. They want to rewrite the rules. And they figure that Emily could hold some promise.**_

**I'm also using this fanfiction as a sort of exploration as to new characters. Sometimes, I think that our main characters are just **_**too**_** perfect, you know? So anyway, my experiment commences.**

**Anyway, there's going to be some changes in this. That's right. The hot male lead is **_**not**_** going to be a Jacobson. You heard me. Or… well, read it. Anyway – the point? In Significance (which I am rereading yet again) lists three families in Tennessee, two in Chicago, one in Sydney, two in Paris, two in London, and one in Prague. This story is set in Chicago, Illinois. (;**

**This story is rated T for TEEN, for romance and possibly some violence.**

**This story takes place at the end of Defiance (after reunification.)**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_Words of the Heart_

_1: Meeting Forever_

People take things for granted. It's true. That's the way of _people_. Everyone knows the saying: You don't know what you have until it's gone. And _that's_ true, too. I know firsthand. Those things that you think you have, things that you think can never be taken from you, _can_ be. One second they can be there, and the next you're wondering where they went and how to get them back.

The real pain comes when you find out you _can't_ get them back.

My childhood was pretty normal. My parents were high school sweethearts, still hanging onto each other's words when they were well into their twenties. They were happy together, the classic couple. My mom was a beauty queen, with black hair that was darker than a raven's feathers and shinier than an oil slick. She had eyes that my dad described as lanterns late at night – bright, bright blue. She had gotten married and settled down, becoming the soccer PTA mom. My dad was her perfect counterpart. He had been a football star, one of the best in town. When I was still in high school, people would ask me if I was related to _the_ great Charlie Bryson. He went to school on a football scholarship and graduated with a degree in business. He and a friend started a business, of which he was the CEO.

And then there was me – little Emily Bryson, gifted with her mother's dark hair and her father's expressive stormy gray eyes. I had what people referred to as natural poise, a grace that made it seem like I was lightly leaping across a stage when I was really just walking. I had inherited my mother's love for music, and by the time I was seven I was playing a guitar. I discovered that I could play by ear. My mom had always told me that it was the mark of a great musician.

My life was great. My sixth grade year went without a hitch. I was easily accepted into the ranks of those that were considerably cooler. I wore name brands and followed the latest trends, pouring over magazines and gossiping about hot movie stars, daydreaming of the day when I would meet the lead singer of my favorite band. I would talk on the phone for hours to my best friend, Bailey. I went to sleepovers and planned the vast majority of them. My house was _the_ house to go to for a sleepover party, where we always did nails and watched the latest movies and, when it was warm out, went swimming in the large pool in the back. My greatest complaints were that I hated my math homework and that my crush, Joey Martin, hardly paid any attention to me.

And then things changed. Drastically. One moment, I'm a golden girl with a big future in front of her. The next, I'm lying in a hospital, my eyebrows drawn together as I struggle to make out what anyone is saying to me. I see their lips moving, but I couldn't hear a word they were saying. The TV was on, showing one of my favorite shows, and I couldn't hear any sounds playing. My mom leaned over and patted my cheek, saying something to me, and all I could do was stare at her lips and try to understand what she was saying.

It was an accident. Bailey and I had climbed into a go-kart even though neither of us knew how to drive one. Bailey was always the shy one. I was the one that commanded the stage. And so, without any hesitation, I sat down in the driver's seat and put on the seatbelt. Bailey sat down next to me as I tightened my fingers on the wheel, knowing that we weren't even supposed to be messing with my older cousin's go-kart that he'd gotten for Christmas. I remembered pressing the gas, jerking forward while both of us squealed. From then on, my memory was hazy. All I knew was that, at some point, I'd managed to flip over the go-kart and knock it into a tree.

Bailey survived with a twisted wrist and a bruised hip. I lost something much more important. Ever since the accident, I haven't been able to hear. I can't hear _anything_. Doctors were shocked. I was an anomaly. My brain, which is what they were really worried about because I'd managed to hit my head and give myself a slight concussion, was perfectly fine. But when they went to look at my ears, they noticed that something had gone wrong. I still wasn't sure what. It was like a broken eardrum in both ears except much worse. Like they had all but exploded.

And ever since then, I've been different. How can you not be different? The sense of hearing is natural and innate. Babies are born already knowing the sound of their mother's heart. It's not something that a person has ever had to teach themselves to do. Bailey and I sort of separated from each other. Most of my old friends didn't talk to me anymore. And, in all reality, they couldn't. I couldn't understand a word that they were saying. The phone was useless to me. I couldn't watch any TV unless I had subtitles on. And the worst part? I lost music. It was everything that I was outside of school and friends. My guitar had gone into its case years ago, and it hadn't seen the light of day since.

I couldn't just sit around and be clueless. I used to walk around with a miniature whiteboard and a dry erase marker and have people write down whatever they were saying to me on it. It was embarrassing, sure, but it was the only way that I knew the story. Hearing was the only thing that made it hard for me to hold a conversation. I could still speak. It wasn't like I was born deaf. I had been like everyone else. I could speak fluently, and I could feel the vibrations in my throat, but I couldn't even hear myself talk. It's sort of like being trapped inside your body, in a way. You only have yourself to talk to.

And so I learned sign language, as did my parents. I learned how to read lips and found out that I was actually quite good at it most of the time, even though there is always that one annoying person that hardly ever opens their mouth when they speak. It was supposed to be temporary. But it was soon evident, after tons of visits to specialists and doctors all over America that I wasn't getting it back. It was like I _was_ one of those people on the "Mysteries at the ER" TV show. I just didn't have a good ending.

In middle school, I attended my usual classes with an aid who sat in the back with me and signed out anything that was spoken and wasn't on the written lesson in front of me. But it was embarrassing, and by the time I was supposed to be going into ninth grade, my mom decided to home school me.

That same year, my parents, the high school sweethearts, decided that things weren't working between them. I knew they fought, but I couldn't hear it. I think that was the only good thing that came out of my newfound deafness. I couldn't hear the harsh words that I knew my parents were throwing out to each other. And so that was the end of their relationship. My dad moved into a high-end apartment, which I visited on occasion, and my mom bought a two-bedroom house that was lower than most of her standards (she had always had money in the bank) and opened up her own store. Ironically, it was a music shop.

For five years, I've lived with my mom and worked in her shop. I can't get my license, and I can't live on my own (not yet, anyway. I'm determined to prove that yes, I could, but I doubted that my mother would ever let me. She'd grown extremely overprotective of me and nearly believed that I couldn't do anything on my own.) All I could do was stay with my mom, go to work, and read my books. Reading had become my hobby. It was the only thing that I could do without noticing the fact that I was missing what everyone else was.

And so that's it. That's the history of a deaf girl.

# # #

I sat behind the main counter in my mother's shop. The desk was built so that there was a wall that went higher than the actual desk, big enough that the computer monitor and tower could be stored underneath the counter ledge. Next to the monitor was a small TV that showed me the entire store. It was for security, sure, but it was more for my benefit. I can't hear when someone steps into the room, but I could see when something changed on the screen.

My mom leaned against the counter, her hand hanging over the ledge to catch my attention. I looked up, using my finger as a bookmark. My mom had taken sign language classes with me, and she had picked up the language just as quickly as I did. It was my dad that lagged behind. My mom always signed and spoke at the same time, so I could see the hand movement as well as the movement of her lips. I found myself doing it, too, sometimes. And sometimes I just answered her in sign, too tired to open my mouth and speak to her.

"Emily," she said, "Can you go to the back and get the new boxes of drumsticks?"

Choosing to sign instead of speak, I replied, "Sure." She smiled at me as I reached for a piece of paper on the desk to replace my bookmark. I closed the book and, with a heavy sigh, stood up from the office chair that I'd nearly permanently become attached to. I grabbed the extra set of keys off the hook right next to the computer monitor and headed towards the back room, where my mom stored all of the new things.

I always forgot which key was which. It took me a moment of flipping through the ring to find the right one. Finally, I managed to unlock the door and step into the storeroom. The lights were dim here, and with the bare concrete floor and the slightly musky scent of the room, it was pretty creepy. I had to stand up on my tiptoes to see over the shelf marked _drumsticks_. Finally, I found it and pulled it down, nearly knocking several things over in the process. With a snort, I tucked the box under my arm and headed back out to the front.

My mom was nowhere to be seen, so I headed over to the back corner, where the drums were set up. I found the matching tray of drumsticks and opened up the new box, unloading them into the tray. Ever since I've lost my hearing, I've noticed that it's like my other senses grow around it, as if trying to replace it. My eyes seemed to pick up on little things that I'd never noticed before, like tiny spiders crawling in the corner of the room or dust motes hanging in the air. I have a particularly sensitive sense of smell – there are some things that just make me instantly sick, and sometimes if there's something pleasant and there's just too much of it, I get a pounding headache. But aside from all of that, it's like a sort of sixth sense, like my skin prickles and I'm aware that there's _something_ around me.

Determined not to look like a sideshow freak if there was someone around me, I continued emptying the box of drumsticks into their tray, only turning once the box was empty. Tucking it under my arm, I stepped up to the counter to dump the box into the recycling bin under the desk. When I stood up, I noticed that there was, in fact, someone in the store.

Out of habit, I glanced at the small TV next to the computer monitor. I _recognized_ that guy. He was the devastatingly handsome guy who had come into the shop a couple weeks ago with a band. My mom had been with me, then, as had one of her other employees, Xavier. I had watched the two of them help the group. I only knew that they were in a band by the way they asked about new equipment and getting their name and logo printed on their drum. I hadn't been able to keep my eyes off of the whole group.

I bit my lip and sat down, picking up my book and opening it up to where I had left off. I wasn't much of a classics fan, like my mom was when she decided to sit down and read, which wasn't often. I was pretty sure that my mom had a huge crush on Mr. Darcy. I had never been able to fully read through the book, preferring instead to read through the young adults' romance novels from the shelves at the library. With the book open just in front of the TV screen, I could watch the guy's every movement while trying to read through my paragraph.

But I couldn't keep my eyes on the book in front of me. At least, it was harder than it should have been. My eyes kept going to the guy walking around the shop, looking at the electric guitars with great interest. I decided that it didn't matter if I was staring or not. I just looked at him blankly. He had dark hair, about the same shade as mine. He was tall and lanky, but sort of broad. It was obvious by the muscles under the sleeves of his shirt that he was fairly strong. When he turned around, viewing the next set of guitars, I saw his face. Framed by almost too-long black hair that was thick and cut in one of the classic rock star styles, I noticed that his shirt was a deep V-neck that showed the warm skin of his chest. He was one of _those_ guys, the ones that took their dream of becoming rock stars to a whole other level. I wouldn't hesitate to say that he was probably cocky and arrogant.

And even though he was completely opposite of the guy that I would have pictured myself with – it was always a respectable man, sometimes with glasses, who was interested in all things concerning the world and the people living on it – I found that _he_ interested me more. I don't know if it was just because of his rock star looks or if it was the confidence he oozed, but there was something about him that made me want to go over there and talk to him.

Which was ridiculous, of course. The only person that had ever taken a romantic interest in me was Xavier, one of the other employees. And even then, it was just a few kisses in the back room. I had never, in my life, been on a date. The reasons why are obvious. Nobody wants someone that's flawed.

But I couldn't help but watch him. He was… well, he was someone that I would have liked to know better. Someone that I could imagine with secrets that he just wanted to tell to someone. Someone who needed a close friend at his side that he could trust unconditionally. Someone who was, actually, a lot like me.

But I stood my ground and kept myself firmly planted in the office chair that I had spent nearly every day of the past five years sitting in at some point. It was well-known that it was my chair. On the back, Xavier had even taken a permanent marker and written, in big block letters, _Emily's Butt Only_. My mom had just laughed at it when she'd seen it, and it had remained there. Xavier was sort of my best friend. I wasn't really sure where we stood in terms of our relationship, but he was one that I knew I could always depend on, whether he was mad at me or not, and I knew that he didn't care if I couldn't hear him. He had even learned how to sign just so he could communicate with me easier. Sometimes, we made a game out of it, signing to each other whenever customers came into the store and we needed something. People always seemed amazed by it. I guess it makes sense. Sign Language is just another language that people find interesting if they can't speak it.

I glanced over the guy's head, to the clock hanging on the wall. It said that it was nearly three, meaning that Xavier should be scooting into the room at any moment now, probably bearing gifts. He was hopelessly addicted to the coffee shop down the way, and he would usually buy me a brownie or a cookie while he was there. And sometimes, when it snowed, he bought me a peppermint hot chocolate.

My eyes left the clock and, surprisingly, locked with the customer's. He was looking at me with a slightly confused expression on his face, but there was also a look of wonder. I couldn't be sure what he was thinking about, honestly. Unless he had said something to me and I didn't respond. But after a moment of smoldering intenseness, his gaze dropped from mine and returned to the guitar that he was currently looking at it.

He seemed to shake his head, as if he was talking to himself, and I dropped my gaze to the book in front of me, trying to focus on the words. I couldn't, though. They seemed a little blurry, and I looked up again. The guy neared the door, and I felt a slight pang at the thought of him leaving. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to get to know him. I wanted to ask him if he needed any help with anything. Anything to get him to stay here for a little bit longer. But, to my relief, he didn't press against the door and head out. Instead, he turned around and walked directly towards me.

For a moment, it was like I had forgotten how to breathe. How do you do that, I wondered? Forget how to breathe. Even so, I struggled to take a deep breath. Right when I thought he was going to come talk to me, he turned sharply to the right, looking at guitar accessories. With a slight huff of disappointment and a sigh of relief, I stood up. The chair spun as I tried to get around it. Where was my mom? I could offer my assistance in whatever he was looking for, but it would be hard to understand him unless he looked directly at me as he spoke. I was just supposed to sit behind the counter, help in the back with the storage and make sure that the place was cleaned up and was, overall, tidy.

I needed air. I broke out from behind the counter and slid right past the guy, knowing that my mom was in the store somewhere. She wouldn't have left without telling me, and if he needed any help there was a classic bell like what would be at hotels sitting on the front counter. I headed straight for the door, aware of the fact that the ground was slick with rain. It would be all too easy to slip and fall, which I honestly wasn't that prone to doing. But with my luck, the only guy that had ever managed to command my attention like that would see me do something so completely embarrassing that I wanted to dig a hole and hide in it forever.

I didn't even make it to the door, though. I think I might have jinxed myself, because one second I was fleeing towards the promise of fresh air and the next I was slipping on a piece of paper that had, magically, managed to drift onto the ratty carpeted floors of the shop. And, of course, since I was wearing my foam flip-flops with no grip, I went down tumbling.

I would have landed right on my butt, too, if someone hadn't caught my jacketed arm. I looked up, immediately thinking that it was my mom, or maybe even Xavier who had slipped in early while I was in the back room and hadn't come to find me. But instead, it was the handsome customer who looked like he was trying his best to become a rock god.

"You okay?" He asked. I noticed that, up close, his eyes were a beautiful green hazel. As he pulled me up, bringing me closer to him, I could see little flecks of golden green in them. I blinked for a moment, trying to form an answer. I had just settled for an awkward nod when I noticed someone burst through the doorway. Xavier set his coffee cup down on the shelf right next to the door, as well as a little package that was bound to have something sweet for me.

His eyes ran over the guy who had caught me, I was sure that, in this partial embrace, it looked like something different to him. His eyes narrowed in on rock star wannabe, and then he looked to me. I was sure that my eyes were as wide as disks, partly because of the fact that this stranger had such an intense hold over me that I wasn't sure what I was going to do, and partly because Xavier looked like he'd just been punched in the gut.

Without a second's waste, he started frantically signing to me. The guy looked up at Xavier, and then back down at me. His eyes had gone a little wider as he watched the hand signals that Xavier was doing. "What happened? Are you okay? Who is that guy?" He asked.

The guy let go of me, and instead of answering out loud, which would probably embarrass the guy, I turned to Xavier and signed back. "I slipped and he caught me. I'm fine." I looked over the guy, who was watching the exchange with a hint of amusement and concern. "It's okay, I'm fine." I said to him out loud. His eyebrows drew together as he looked between the two of us. I wondered if he thought that Xavier was the deaf one.

Xavier looked between the two of us, as if he wasn't really sure he believed me. And then he let out a heavy sigh – I could tell by the shrug of his shoulders – and then he reached out for his coffee and whatever was in the bag. "Do you need help with anything?" He asked, holding out the bag to me. The guy watched our exchange as I reached for the bag, pulling it open to look inside. Xavier had bought me my favorite cookie (double chocolate chip.) I pulled out a piece and tore it off, handing the chunk of it to him. It was tradition. I always got the majority of the cookie, but I always shared at least a pinch.

I watched the guy's lips to see what he said. Xavier's voice wasn't one that I had heard. I had no idea what it sounded like. And honestly, I had never really mourned it all that much. But this guy's voice… I was _dying_ to know what it sounded like. "I'm just looking at some new guitars," he replied. I narrowed my eyes as I focused on his lips. Some of his words weren't very well formed.

Xavier glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. Instead of heading to the desk, where I usually sat and played solitaire on the computer or read my book, I had remained next to him and to the guy. He raised his eyebrows at me, asking me in our own language if I understood what he said. I gave a slight nod, but when I looked back up, the guy was already speaking. Xavier nodded to whatever he said and then replied, turning to me for a second. He signed, "He's just looking for some new guitar. Says that his band is thinking about some new instruments. Where's your mom?"

"Don't know," I replied out loud, glancing over my shoulder to the back room. "She didn't tell me where she'd be going." The rock star guy looked between us slyly. I'm used to seeing certain expressions on people's face when they realize that I'm deaf. Sometimes, people pretend like it's no big deal. Others stare at me openly, as if there's something on my face. And then there's some that look like this guy – sad that I'm in this predicament.

I just turned and went back to the desk, hand holding onto my double chocolate chip cookie. I took a seat at my chair, spinning around in it as I settled down and reached for the computer mouse. So I couldn't focus on my book. I would play solitaire. I would completely ignore the guy that was hanging around in the front of the store.

And wouldn't you know, I couldn't.

# # #

It had been three whole days since I'd seen the guy. And every single day, I thought about him. I really did. He was the sort of person that was burned into my mind. I couldn't remember why, not really. He was just a guy with a funky style and nice eyes. Gorgeous eyes. But just eyes nonetheless.

It still didn't explain why I sat at my computer chair every day, playing solitaire or reading through one of my favorite books for a second time, hoping that he would walk into the store again just so I could see him. There was something about him that made me want to chase him down, to take his hand, to look at him directly in the eye and tell him every secret I'd ever held.

I caught movement on the video screen. Glancing up over the counter, my eyes met the gaze of someone that I had been dreaming about these last few nights. The rock star wannabe was back.

**Like I said, this is an experiment of mine. I wanted to play with the idea of an imperfect heroine, and I've always found sign language interesting. Unless there is a major excitement about this story, I'm just going to work on it when I have extra time. I know, I know, pushing it on the backburner right now is sort of ridiculous, but I'm determined to finish some of my other fanfictions. Still, this one is on the list to be updated as regularly as I can!**

**I apologize in advance for spelling/grammatical errors. I also want to ask that you take a few moments to leave me a review with your comments and criticism. Guest reviews are turned on. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Peace. (:**


	2. Imprint

**BreeTico – I love the idea of being able to "speak" Sign Language. It's so interesting, more than Spanish or French is to me. I know that the majority of colleges offer Sign Language, which I plan on taking. (: Thanks for the review, even though I bothered you about it. Haha! (:**

**Guest – Thank you! I do think that my deaf character came off better than I thought it would. I am, in fact, planning on continuing it. I absolutely love the Significance series and can't stay away. Plus, it's always nice to write about a love. I have no idea why, but it is. Thanks for the review! (:**

**AwesomeSauce220 – For one, you have an awesome name. I just have to point that out. Secondly, thank you! As for right now, I intend on continuing to update, but don't blame me if the updates take a little longer than a couple days. (;**

**The reason I'm updating this right now is because I'm going on a short summer vacation. I already had this written, so I was like, "Why wait?" Anyway, enjoy! (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_2: Imprint_

Why did he return again? He showed up with his band once, and then he showed up alone, claiming to look for new guitars. He hadn't bought anything either time. So what was his reason for being here this time around?

His eyes darted to me the moment he stepped into the room. I couldn't ignore the fact that my heartbeat shot through the roof, pounding against my chest. My hands immediately went a little clammy, my stomach tangling together in a knot of nerves. He looked exactly the same, sort of. His hair was thick and too long, styled in the same fashion with an emo-boy swoop over one eye. His shirt was navy blue with rolled up sleeves and an open neck, revealing a little of his smooth chest. His jeans were just the right amount of tightness, and he wore black boots. On his fingers, there were a series of silver rings and he wore a leather cuff around his wrist. His neck was adorned with thin leather straps. It looked like there was a pendant hanging down from one of them. And his face. Framed by his dark hair, his skin seemed even warmer. His nose was chiseled and straight, his eyebrows a little thick, and a distinct five o' clock shadow on his jaw.

And even though I couldn't see them from this far away, I knew that he had gorgeous green hazel eyes with hints of gold threaded through. They were so expressive, more expressive than any eyes I'd ever seen before. His whole demeanor screamed untouchable and aloof, even a little arrogant, but his eyes said something completely different. You only had to get close enough to see them. And God, I wanted to get close enough to see them again.

He kept walking towards me. His body language said that he was determined, that he had something that he planned on doing, something that he planned on getting done. And honestly, I was a little scared. He was a pretty big guy – tall and fairly broad, big enough that you knew he could hold his own and that he'd probably been in a brawl or two, if not more. But he was also lean and agile-looking, which made him seem more like a fashion model as his gaze met mine.

There they were, those beautiful eyes. My breath caught in my chest, and I felt an awkward smile flutter across my lips. I thought that I saw the corner of his lips turn up, just for a moment, before someone stepped in between him and the counter desk, where I was perched in my chair like I was every day. My heart immediately dropped as I stared at the back of Xavier.

I let out a heavy sigh. Xavier had been a little iffy ever since he walked in and saw Rock Star Wannabe holding me up three days ago. He had continued to bring me something sweet whenever he stopped by the coffee shop, but he hadn't brought me a double chocolate chip cookie since. Yesterday, he'd brought me a lemon tart. That was basically Xavier saying that, while he still cared for me, he wasn't very happy with me. And I couldn't really be all that sure why. So he had walked into the shop right when I slipped and someone utterly handsome caught me. Why was that such a big deal?

Rock Star Wannabe was a few inches taller than Xavier, and I could see his mouth moving, but Xavier's dark hair hid the majority of his chin and lips. I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to see through Xavier, as if I suddenly had the ability to turn on x-ray vision. Finally, I whirled the chair around and stepped out from behind the counter, nearly tripping over a couple of empty boxes that were haphazardly shoved underneath the desk. Neither of them seemed to notice me as I sidled right up to Xavier's side. Rock Star Wannabe's eyes darted to me, and I found myself bursting into a sunny smile. I couldn't remember the last time I'd smiled like that. But I really, _really_ wanted him to like me, even if the only words we'd shared were on whether or not I had injured myself by slipping on a piece of paper.

Xavier looked at me from the corner of his eye, clearly confused that I had gotten up from my seat to mingle with the customers. He knew that I hated standing on the floor. People who didn't know about my story – and there were a lot, we _were_ in Chicago, after all – assumed that I could help them. And I could. If they could sign or if they looked directly at me when the spoke. But that was rare, so I exclusively preferred to spend my time sitting in my chair, clicking away on my computer or reading my book. He knew it, but to his credit, he didn't turn and question me on it right away.

Rock Star Wannabe continued to talk as I stared at his lips. It was hard to translate a whole string of sentences at once, especially when I stepped in at the middle of one. I couldn't tell which was the end and where the beginning was. To let Xavier know that I wanted in on the conversation, I slipped my arm around his elbow. He glanced at me as he answered Rock Star Wannabe, motioning towards the wall that housed guitar accessories. Our customer's eyes darted to me for a second before he turned and headed to where Xavier directed him.

My best friend turned to me and signed his question out. "What's wrong?"

Glancing over at Rock Star Wannabe, I chose to keep this as a sign-only conversation. "Nothing. I just… want to be helpful."

Xavier's eyebrows drew together, because he knew that was a lie. I didn't even have to tell him, so there was no inflection in my voice, and he was _still_ able to tell that I was lying. It was okay. I wouldn't have believed it myself. But I couldn't very well tell him that there was something about the handsome stranger that drew me to him, other than his looks and his arrogant but secretive attitude. "He's looking at guitar accessories." He narrowed his eyes at me and said, "What are you really up to?"

"I can't believe you'd assume I was up to something." I replied with a huff, moving my hands quickly, knowing that I was testing his skills. He knew it, too. I only ever signed that quickly when Xavier was roughly a beginner – he hadn't been signing for much longer than a year – when I was annoyed with him. Or if I was trying to slide past his eagle eyes. The only bad thing was that Xavier knew my tricks. And, he was getting better at reading me despite the speed I was going at.

"Don't turn this around on me. You know that you're acting funny. What's it all about?" He glanced towards the desk where my vacated chair was, where his coffee also happened to be. I knew that he was craving the caffeine in a cup. He usually did when he found himself stressed out.

"I'm just tired of sitting in my chair." I signed, looking at my chair for emphasis. _Emily's Butt Only_ was glaringly noticeable when the chair was empty and alone. Xavier sighed and glanced over at Rock Star Wannabe. I wondered if he knew what I really felt about him. I wanted to be close to him. I wanted to get to know him. I wanted to occupy the shadow that he casted on the floor. I wanted to be the only one that was allowed to be right next to him.

I had never felt the feeling so strongly before. Actually, I'd never really felt _it_ before. I guess I could say that I'd felt a form of it. When I met people that were my own age, people like Xavier or the kids that were in my group for deaf kids, and I found someone that I liked, I wanted to be noticed by them. But the feeling that coursed through me right then was something that was alien to me. I had never _wanted_ so much from someone else before.

Xavier shook his head, but it was clear that our conversation was over. He turned away from me and leaned against the counter. Wrapping his fingers around the coffee, her took a long drink before turning to look at me pointedly. I let myself take a glance over at Rock Star Wannabe, who was perusing the racks of guitar straps and guitar picks, as well as the packets of strings and cases. He seemed a little stiff, though, as he if wasn't sure what he was doing there. With a slight sigh, and a good round of questioning myself in my head, I returned to my chair behind the counter. Xavier seemed visibly relieved that I had returned to my seat instead of pursuing a conversation with Rock Star Wannabe, who interested me more than anyone had ever interested me before.

I spun back and forth in my chair, ignoring Xavier completely. I wasn't sure why he was bothering me. He just _was_. I figured that it had to do something with the fact that he was, very obviously, trying to keep me away from Rock Star Wannabe. It wouldn't have bothered me any other time. I knew that I was a little in over my head with whatever emotions were running through me like my veins were a network of highways. But this time, I was on edge about the whole ordeal.

I'm a girl. I get crushes on cute, possibly perfect boys. I daydream about them coming up to me and scooping me up in their arms, becoming my knight in shining armor. But that never happens. And I know why. I have a personality. I've even been told that I have a sarcastic bite. And people have assured me that I was just as beautiful as my mom was when she was younger, nearly an exact copy except that I was a little curvier and my eyes were gray instead of blue. And I knew that I was relatively smart. I had managed to handle high school without any real teachers, just a load of hired tutors.

It was the fact that I was damaged property. When you see a dog at the animal shelter, one that needs extra attention because it's blind or is jumpy or is deaf, would you just continue walking? How many people – especially teenage boys – would stop and choose that one out when it could have another dog that was just as perfect and beautiful that had no problems? I was flawed, and for that, I was going to end up stuck in my mother's house when she refused, yet again, to let me have my own apartment. And nobody that was, by definition, _normal_ would choose me.

I looked up at Xavier. I always thought about how nice he was to me, how easily he had slipped into the status of being my best friend (and maybe something more.) But any relationship that was greater than friendship between us was hidden away to the storage room or darkened porches when he dropped me off at night. I don't think my mom even knew about the fact that Xavier and I had even kissed before. Just thinking about it made me blush when he looked up to meet my gaze. I'd never really defined the relationship with Xavier. Every single kiss we'd shared was just a peck on the lips. And I couldn't even remember the last time we'd kissed.

We just sort of… were. We existed around each other. But we weren't _together_. And even though I knew that it was technically impossible for me to have that princess fairytale relationship I always dreamed about, I _wanted_ it. And for some reason, it was in my mind that just knowing someone like Rock Star Wannabe would bring me one step closer to it. It was a ridiculous notion, I knew, and it was something that was never ever going to happen.

Xavier caught the corner of my eye. He downed the rest of his coffee and started signing. "I'm going to go grab some food from that Chinese place. You want anything?"

"Orange chicken," I answered out loud, giving him a broad smile despite the fact that I knew he was feeling antsy about leaving me here with Rock Star Wannabe, even though it was only going to be for a few minutes. That irked me, but I couldn't say much about it. He nodded, checked his back pocket for his wallet, and headed for the front door.

My mom was in the back office, where she usually went when Xavier or one of the other employees showed up. The store was small enough that there was only one person needed on the floor, and I was known for being the check-out girl. I didn't have to hear to scan or type in item codes, and I didn't need to hear to make change. When I first started working, I'd folded up a white card and used a thick permanent marker to write "_Sorry, I'm deaf. And I work in a music shop. Ironic, isn't it?_" My mom had just sighed and shaken her head when I taped it to the top of the counter, but she had taken a let-Emily-do-what-she-wants stance when I reached about fifteen or sixteen. Xavier had shown a surprising amount of dislike for it. I thought it was just funny. And sometimes customers found it funny, too.

Now alone in the shop with Rock Star Wannabe for the first time in three days, I couldn't help but think about him standing there at nook that housed guitar accessories. Interestingly enough, I found myself wondering if he even played the guitar. It was sort of a dumb question, because why else would he be staring at the guitars if he didn't play one? I mean, he was in a band after all. That meant that he could either sing or play an instrument.

After a few more minutes of sitting there and thinking about him, I opened up a game of solitaire on the computer and did my best to focus on the screen. I had actually sort of succeeded with my distraction until I caught his movement out of the corner of my eye. He was heading up to the counter. In his hand there was a single package of guitar picks. I had the feeling that he had come into the store not really needing anything for a guitar. Which meant that he was buying something just so he didn't seem strange or because he really wanted to talk to me. I knew the latter was probably a stretch, but I couldn't help but feel a little burst of joy as he neared.

His eyes seemed focused on me as he set the guitar picks on the counter. I picked it up and scanned it underneath the laser, knowing that it beeped when the number came up on the computer. When I glanced back up, about to deliver his total – three dollars and twenty-six cents – I noticed that he was looking at the card that I had displayed on the counter. And, like very few customers before him, he actually cracked a grin at it. The smile carried over to me.

"Three dollars and twenty-six cents," I told him, trying to keep the trembling out of my voice. How could he do this to me? I had never met someone who managed to make me more awkward than I already was.

He pulled out his wallet, slipping a five dollar bill out. He handed it over the counter to me, and I went to grab it. Thinking that I already had a hold on it, he released it. We both lunged to grab it, and instead of grabbing the dollar bill, our hands found each other's.

The feeling was something that I had never felt before. It seemed that boy managed to pull more out of me than anyone else had. But this was different altogether. My veins seemed like fire and ice were taking turns rushing through them. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck rose, as if I'd just been hit with static electricity. And then images flooded my brain, vibrantly colored and slightly foggy at the same time.

I could clearly see me in it. My hair looked like it had a slight blue tone from the extreme contrast of the vision, and I was smiling so broadly that I couldn't ever remember having that smile cross my lips before. And I was laughing, and in my mind, I _heard_ it. You wouldn't believe the amount of time I'd spent wondering what my own voice sounded like. The me that was laughing was whisked away, and suddenly I was standing in front of someone. Someone tall and dark, someone that I cared about a lot. I knew instinctively that it was a guy. Large hands with long fingers wrapped around my upper arms, and I had my eyes closed as my chin tilted up for a kiss. Before I could feel the pressure of lips against mine, I was introduced to a sunny sky that was so bright it temporarily blinded me. And I heard my name being called out to me by a deep, slightly rough voice that made my heart pound a little faster. I started to turn around, but before I could see who was calling me, I was whirled away to another vision. I had a feeling that it would be the last. I was wearing a red dress that draped across my body and had an asymmetrical hem. I wasn't wearing any shoes, but instead was relishing the feeling of soft grass between my toes. Someone leaned forward to whisper in my ear, and I heard, clear as day, "_You're perfect._"

Just as quickly as they had begun, the visions retracted, and I was sitting in my usual chair behind the counter of my mom's store. I was no longer outdoors, smelling summer or wearing a beautiful dress that had the softest fabric I had ever felt before. My fingers were still gripped in Rock Star Wannabe's, but instead of just an accidental embrace, his fingers were tight on mine, as if there was some purpose behind them. I gasped at the feeling that coursed through me. It was a calmness that centered on me, a feeling that, once again, I hadn't felt in a long time. I had never been this… peaceful.

Rock Star Wannabe let go of my hand briefly, and the moment he did my heart started beating a little faster in my chest. He took a brief step back, looking down at his hands and then touching the left side of his chest. And then he looked up at me, his eyes ablaze with something that I couldn't really understand. He rushed around the desk, which shocked me. Nobody had ever come behind the desk except for employees. It was just something that was _not_ done.

He dropped into a crouch next to me. He looked around and reached for the printer, pulling out a blank sheet of computer paper. His eyes scanned the desk and he reached for a pen, uncapping it before scribbling something down on the page. He wrote for a minute or two, my gaze darting to the front door because I knew that if Xavier walked in the door, he wouldn't hesitate to escort this guy out. He pushed the paper over to me, and I picked it up, my eyes scanning over his spiky, slanted writing.

_I don't really know how to start this. This will seem a little insane to you, but I just ask that you think about the visions that I know you saw and the feelings that you are feeling right now, especially the calmness that you feel whenever I touch you. This will seem like an information overload, I know, but it's the only way you can know what exactly is going on. _

_My name is Derek Stanton. I am like you, just a little different. I am part of a race of humans that are gifted by the supernatural. We are called Virtuoso, or Charmed. We call ourselves Aces. I know, you think I'm insane this very second, but hear me out._

_Aces are given their powers by ascending into their abilities. To ascend, they find their soul mate. To find their soul mate, they imprint on someone who is the perfect person for them in body and soul. It's triggered by a touch, and when you imprint, you see visions of your future together. It's a deal that sealed forever. It's not a mistake, and it can't be broken. It's meant to be. It's the reason we Aces live._

_And that's just what we did. We imprinted. It means that you are perfect for me and I am perfect for you. I know that you're thinking that I'm just some insane stalker dude, but I'm going to be honest with you. We are soul mates, and we belong together. Without each other, we will feel a pain that is unlike any other. We call them withdrawals, since we are very literally withdrawing from each other. We need each other to survive. In other words, I need you to survive, and you need me._

My eyes scanned the page. My heartbeat started pounding a million miles a minute. What kind of drug was this guy smoking? I glanced over at him out of the corner of my eye as I slowly started to push my chair away. Could the guy turn out to be violent? Was he so high that he had decided to stalk me? As I thought the words, my eyes returned to his first paragraph. There was no way that I could fend off the visions that I'd seen. _I_ had seen them. Unless breathing the same air as him made me a little loopy, then he wasn't lying about that. He could've been lying about the other stuff.

And just as I was thinking that, I noticed that he was slowly reaching out for me. I shoved away from him so hard that the chair crashed into the pile of boxes that I still had not moved. He put both hands up for a moment, his eyes begging me to just let him explain. He held out a hand, waiting for me to drop my hand into his upturned palm. I stared into his eyes, noticing the bright color in them, and I felt any fear that had grown in my stomach crumble. With a slightly shaky hand, I let my fingers brush his palm. His eyes closed momentarily as an intense calm washed through me, erasing my anxiety. He couldn't make me feel anything. The emotions that coursed through me, as well as the visions, were all mine.

Which meant that he was not lying. In that paragraph, anyway. The rest of it could have been made up. Soul mates, really?

"I… I don't know whether or not to believe you." I told him.

He bowed his head over our hands, which seemed to mold together perfectly. He looked up at me, and said, his mouth forming the words very precisely. "You'll just have to trust me."

**What do you think of this second chapter? I mean, I find it a little hard to write the imprinting part every time. It's something that I (obviously) haven't felt before, so I'm not exactly sure how a girl would handle the situation. I don't want her to trust blindly, but hey. I'll figure something out for the next chapter, I'm sure.**

**Please take a minute or two to leave me a review in the box below. Thanks for reading! Peace (:**


	3. Trust

**AwesomeSauce220 – Isn't need by Carrie something? That's just a guess off the top of my head, though. Haha. (: Ah, sorry about the inaccurate number. I decided to reread Significance, but I'm already towards the end and just guesstimated from memory. (By the way, I have to add that guesstimated came up as a rightly-spelled word on my spell check. Amazing!) As for the quotations around the sign language, I struggled with how to portray it. I generally use italics when they are speaking to each other in their minds. Every time they sign, I try to let you know (though I probably missed some) or you can assume they're signing if they know how to sign because it's easier to understand than reading lips, particularly when they're having a private conversation. (:**

**BreeTico – I liked it better, too, actually. It's better to just lay all the information out flat. Plus, Derek's sort of a "I'mma tell you now" type of person. Lol (:**

**Complete Chocoholic – Thank you! And honestly, writing chapter two was easier and took less time than chapter one. I'm a hopeless sucker for romance, especially a good paranormal romance. Thanks for the review. (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_3: Trust_

Trust a stranger, or turn around and run as far as I could? That was the question. Derek Stanton – if that was even his name – held my hand tightly in between both of his. And just as he had said, I _did_ feel a calming sensation wash through me like pulsing waves. How was he doing that to me? How was it possible that he made me feel something like this? It wasn't an emotion that could be swayed by the situation and my current state of mind. It was a physical feeling, like when you got a paper cut and it burned. But instead of being painful, it was pleasant, like I couldn't get enough of it.

And I think that sort of scared me more. I was, by definition, a codependent person. I didn't have a driver's license, I couldn't go to restaurants and other places alone because I could never understand what a person was saying to me, and I was generally unable to have a job that would allow me to pay for my own apartment. But even so, I tried to be as independent as possible. I had wanted to be able to move out after I graduated. I had wanted to be able to attend whatever college that I'd wanted to – specifically an art school, for music. But I couldn't do that, so I settled for washing my own clothes at the house, cooking my own dinner on most occasions, and buying new clothes with the pay I earned working at my mom's store. And even though she knew that it was what I wanted, my mom had never been able to _not_ hover around me as if I couldn't do things on my own.

And now, I was scared that this situation, this _imprint_ that Derek Stanton had said had marked itself on the both of us, meant that I could never have that sense of independency that I had always wanted.

Gripping the note that he had written me in my free hand, I read over it again. Derek kneeled quietly in front of me, his fingers still wrapped completely around my hand. And honestly, it was comfortable. Any other person and I was sure that I would be pulling away as quickly as I could. But I _liked_ the feeling of his hand around mine. My eyes roved over the note for a millionth time, taking in everything that it said.

How do you just accept something like that? He was telling me that he was a human with superhuman abilities, a man that depended on finding a soul mate that he expected to spend his forever with. He was telling me that without him nearby to keep away some sort of withdrawal, I was going to feel an incredible pain. He was telling me that I was supposed to swallow his explanation that we were soul mates and flit along after him like a brainless groupie.

I slowly pulled away from him, my hand slipping from his grasp. What was that pang I felt in my chest? Was it actually a physical pain from separating myself from him? I carefully folded up the note he had written to me, scooting my chair back a little bit, staring down at the square of white paper in my hands. Supposedly, it held the answer to my future.

I might as well have admitted it: I was confused. My body was telling me one thing and my rational mind was telling me another. If I listened to my heart, it was telling me to look back at the times when I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. It was reminding me of the moments when I'd thought that my attraction to him was unusual, even for me. It was pounding with the very thought that this guy sitting in front of me was _made_ for me. And then there were the visions that I had seen and the emotions that I had felt. He could possibly be the knight in shining armor that would sweep me off my feet and carry me to the castle where we would live happily ever after. It was ridiculous. My hopelessly romantic side was slipping out as I stared at the square of a note.

I struggled to push it back into the box and think about it rationally with my brain. My brain had failed me in the past, sure – the most starring moment was when it decided that, as an eleven-year-old, I would be able to easily drive a go-kart – but I would rather wallow in pity from a conscious decision instead of jumping into something that was completely off the wall and something that was very nearly impossible to believe. My mind was saying that I was stupid for even thinking about this with such intensity. That I was insane for thinking that maybe, just _maybe_, he was being completely honest with me. It was telling me that I needed to call my mother in from the back office or begin praying that Xavier would return soon with my orange chicken.

And I still sat there, completely unsure of what I was going to do and how I was going to orchestrate my answer once I had it. Still just as confused as I was to begin with, I slowly looked up at him. I realized that his hands were resting on the arms of my chair, close to my thighs. My eyes took in the way his knees nearly touched my shins, the way his shirt was open at the collar, the dark blue complementing the warm tone of his skin. The leather straps that created his necklace had a single pendant hanging from them. It was a flat disk with some raised marking on it. It sort of looked like a flame with three distinctive points on it, on tall wavering one in the middle and two shorter ones on either side. It was perfectly symmetrical, so that if it were folded in half they would be exact copies. My eyes stayed on it for a moment before going up to his face, skimming over the slight shadow on his jaw, over the thick, black hair that I was dying to run my fingers through, and over his proud nose. And then my eyes met his, and I was lost.

Derek Stanton had eyes that I had been dreaming about. Not only was their color unnervingly different from any that I had ever seen before, but it was like I could read his every thought and emotion in them. Eyes truly are the windows to the soul. Most people keep their soul as guarded as possible. Sarcasm, pride, and cynical outlooks on life push people away, preventing them from getting too close. Souls are hidden from others. But Derek's eyes were clear and open, allowing me to see directly into who he was. And from what I saw there, he was being completely truthful. Honesty was the forefront of his mind. And there was something else that I never would have thought that I would see from him, a guy that seemed arrogant and aloof. He was begging me to believe him, to step into his good graces and let him talk me into whatever he had in mind.

But I was starting to believe that he wasn't trying to talk me into anything. He was just trying to tell me the honest truth, and he was hoping that I would believe him because it was _real_. And just looking into his eyes made my decision for me. It didn't really matter whether or not he was lying to me anymore. It was like I had suddenly become one of those girls that didn't care if their dream guy was some werewolf or vampire or twisted paranormal creature. I didn't care, because a part of me was already lost to him.

I opened my mouth to tell him that. Well, not _that_ specifically, but that I believed him. That I would give him the chance to really prove it to me. I didn't get the chance to, though, because the front door burst open. I didn't hear it, but Derek did, and his gaze shot to the small surveillance TV screen underneath the counter by the computer monitor. I looked at it too and saw Xavier standing in the doorway, holding a bag of Chinese food. I looked up over the counter, unsure if he could see Derek kneeling in front of me behind the counter. By the way Xavier had acted about the guy that was, supposedly, my soul mate, I doubted that he would be pleased to see him behind the counter.

Derek was apparently a quick thinker. He reached for the boxes that I had tripped over and run into multiple times. Gathering them up in his arms, he stood up and balanced them together. Standing up, I darted a glance over to Xavier. His fingers had tightened on the plastic straps of the bag that our Chinese food at come in. I glanced over at Derek and he looked directly at me, forming his words very clearly. "Where do you want me to put these?" He asked. Our eyes locked together for a moment, and I could see the slight panic in his gaze. I was aware of the fact that my heart was pounding in my chest a million miles a minute. Derek looked a little breathless and a little uncomfortable, as if something was bothering him.

"The storage room," I answered, standing up to get out of my chair. "I'll show you where to put them." The chair spun a little bit as I nearly jumped out of the chair. I found myself wanting to grab a hold of Derek and lead him to the storage room, if only so I could open a channel in between us. It seemed that he was correct when he said that his touch brought me calmness and peace. Instead I just turned and pushed my chair back in so he could have a clear walkway. He stepped past me and my chair as I looked up at Xavier.

My best friend/possible boyfriend/sort of kind of love interest looked at me with an expression that said he was hurt. I wasn't exactly sure why. All he saw was Derek carrying a load of boxes for me. Maybe it was because he thought that I'd rather have a random stranger help me than wait around for him to help lug the boxes to the storage room. Maybe it was because he could see that there was something about Derek that made me a little… I don't know. Was loopy the right word?

I gave Xavier a small smile, hoping that it looked realistic enough that he would stay here and unpack the food bag while I showed Derek where to put the boxes. I was just hoping that I could have the chance to talk to him a little more. Xavier's eyes darted to the back office where my mom was working, probably ordering whatever we were low on and possibly talking to her boyfriend, a really nice, slightly awkward guy named Cal.

Before Xavier could set down the bag of food to sign any questions to me, I turned my back and headed towards the storage room. Derek was waiting beside the counter, his arms full of the boxes. I thought I saw the flash of a smile as I looked up at him before brushing past him and leading the way to the storage room. I pushed open the door and swept my arm across the entrance. Derek stepped inside and I followed, letting the door partly close behind me.

"Put the boxes there," I said, pointing towards the farthest corner of the storage room. After a moment, I added, "Please." He did as I directed, carefully setting the boxes down in their haphazard pile. He turned to face me, brushing off the front of his shirt. I let my eyes rove over him for a moment longer. It didn't matter if he was making his way to clinically insane, and dragging me down with him, I took the chance to appreciate the view.

He turned to face me. I immediately bit down on my lip and raised my gaze to meet the eyes that had changed my perceptions of him. Eyes that would, no doubt, change the rest of my life. A small, slightly awkward smile flashed across his face. His eyes asked me if I had made my decision yet. Did I believe him? Or was I going to send him packing?

"I believe you," I said. I had intended for my words to sound strong in a way that would let him know that any of his funny business would be met with domestic war. I didn't have any brothers to back me up, but my mother could be downright vicious, my father had one of the best lawyers in the entire city, and Xavier already looked like he was itching to pound his fist into Derek's face. Besides, I could hold my own, at least a little bit. I knew basic self-defense, like pounding someone's nose, biting their hand, and kneeing them where it hurt the most.

Derek sighed with relief, his shoulders raising momentarily as he took a deep breath before looking up to meet my gaze. A large smile touched his lips, showing white teeth. "Thank you," he said. Or, I guess he didn't really say. He was mouthing the words, but I had the feeling that he wasn't saying anything. Xavier was sure to take a moment to eavesdrop.

I looked up at him, searching his face for a moment before realizing that the only thing I knew about him was that his name was Derek Stanton, he played the guitar in a band, and that he was, apparently some sort of supernatural human who had imprinted with me. Little ole' deaf me. But he had no idea who I was. He didn't even know my _name_. And for the first time, I thought about how scary this was for _him_. Surely he wasn't panicking like I was, since he was the supernatural one. He knew what was going on, supposedly, and I didn't. But I was as much of a stranger to him as he was to me. And I found myself actually feeling a little giddy about the entire thing. A clean slate. A new start.

I held out my hand and said, "I'm Emily. Emily Bryson."

I could see the smile that crossed his face and the way that his lips moved when he repeated my name. And even though I couldn't hear his voice repeating my name, I felt the chills go down my spine when I realized that he did. He looked around, and I figured that he was searching for another piece of paper. He had figured out that the best way to give me a bunch of information at once was just to write it down. I dug in my jeans pocket and pulled out the folded up piece of paper he'd already given me. I held it out to him, and he smiled at my gratefully. I reached for the back of the door, where my mom kept a clipboard with notes and a pen. I handed him the pen, and he uncapped it and bent over the page.

I tried to seem unbothered by what was, technically, an awkward silence. My eyes ran over the empty boxes stored in the very back of the room to the still-taped boxes that held my mom's inventory in the front of the room. Glancing down at the shiny cement floor, I decided that the room definitely needed to be swept. After a good minute, Derek held out the sheet to me. He'd just added on to whatever he had written earlier.

_Emily, I'm glad you believe me. I know that it's insane, especially for someone like you. I grew up knowing about this. The majority of imprints are between people that know all about Aces, since Aces generally only imprint with each other. You are fully human and haven't been introduced into this world. I can only imagine how weird it really is. Two imprinted people are called significants. I am your significant, and you are mine. We are in tune with each other in a way that allows me to read you and you to read me._

_But here's the thing. You need me as much as I need you. It will be worse for you, though. You are human. The withdrawals will make you feel like you are sick with the flu. I'll need to see you every few hours, at least. Without my touch, you will continue to live through the withdrawals. And without your touch, I'll suffer along with you._

_This may freak you out, but I will always know where you are. You feel that heartbeat of yours? I can feel it, too, in my chest. It's so I can protect you. I know when you are scared and when you're nervous, and when you panic, I'll be able to follow it to where you are. It's my duty to protect and care for you._

_The easiest way for you to be introduced into this life is to meet my family. If there is any doubt that you have in me, once you meet them you'll see that I'm not some insane stalker and you are not crazy. This is real, and this is life. I don't have the time to tell you everything I need to, even though I should just tell you all right now so you won't have any confusion. But I can't. But I will give you my cell phone number. You can text me any questions you have. But be warned, you can't tell anyone about Aces or the imprint. We have to stay under the radar._

I looked up and gave him a slight nod. He seemed relieved that I was agreeing to this. I had no idea who he was, and I was allowing myself to meet his family. But how could I possibly fight with the fact that I _felt_ something for him? I wanted to trust him. I wanted to hand my life over to him and know that it was completely safe. I wanted to touch him – his face, his hair. I wanted to press my lips to his cheek, if not his lips.

The emotions were so intense that I couldn't just ignore them. Whatever I had felt was real to me, and that had to mean something. I looked down at his number, printed clearly across the bottom of the page. I thought about giving him my number in return but decided that it would just be safer for me to hold onto his. If I felt these pains or whatever he said I was going to feel, then I would text him because God knew calling was out of the question for me. He would have my number the moment I sent him a text message. But until then, he wasn't getting any digits out of me.

He stepped closer to me, and instead of feeling any fear, like I usually did when a guy stepped closer to me than I was used to (especially with Derek being, technically, a stranger) I felt myself lean forward a little bit. It was like we were opposite ends of a magnet, drawing closer to each other. I found myself wondering if we were the type of magnets that were extremely hard to pull apart, or if it was just the light pull that could easily be ignored.

Derek took another step closer. I could feel his hands touch mine gently, as if he wasn't really sure that I would pull away from him. I found that I didn't have it in me to pull away from him. If anything, I wanted to step closer and wrap my arms around him. But I didn't, because he was a stranger, and that would be weird. But that didn't stop the two of us from drifting into each other's personal space. He dipped forward a little bit, and I had the feeling that he was going to kiss me. My heart sped up in my chest over it. My mind was telling me that I needed to step back and slap him across the face for thinking that he could introduce himself and then get close to me. But the majority of me practically sang at it. My head tipped back on its own accord, and my eyelids shut.

I could feel his breath on my face, but no kiss ever came. I opened my eyes to find that Derek had frozen, just a few inches away from my face. If I really wanted to, I could stand up on my tiptoes and press my lips to his. And I did really want to. But then again, there was that whole pesky piece of information that said it was stupid of me to kiss a man that I had barely met. Derek let out a sigh, his eyes shut. He took a step back, shaking his head. A part of me was interested in the fact that his hair wasn't messed up by the movement. It still didn't curb the urge that I had to run my fingers through it, though. Derek reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, and after a moment he opened his eyes and looked at me.

He formed his words very carefully and a little slowly. I wanted to tell him that he didn't have to act like I wouldn't understand him, but it did make it easier for me to read his lips. "Sorry," he muttered the word, his eyes not meeting mine. He reached out, and for a moment I had the hope that he was going to grab me up in a hug. Instead, he just tapped the note that I had already refolded. "Text me if you need me. I have to tell my family about this."

I nodded. Neither of us moved though. Instead, we just stared at each other. I had the feeling that something momentous might happen, but before either of us moved, the door to the storage room pushed open. Xavier looked a little angry and a little shocked, but he tried his best to hide it, leaning against the doorjamb. I couldn't help but flash him a short glare. Xavier shrugged a little angrily, his gaze narrowing on Derek. I realized that we were still standing incredibly close, closer than even two friends stood on a regular basis. This was best friend/boyfriend territory that Derek was invading, and Xavier obviously didn't like it.

Derek gave me a smile that said so much more than friendship. His eyes searched mine for a moment before he nodded and stepped towards the open door. He paused at the counter to grab the guitar picks he had bought. We both turned to go our separate ways when I realized that I couldn't move. I couldn't even step forward. My eyes glanced wildly towards Derek, wondering if he was doing this to me. But he looked just as locked as I was. He looked over at me and smiled, his words clear on his lips. "It was nice to meet you, Emily. I'll see you later."

It was as if the air around me had been thick as syrup, and the moment that his words registered with me, it was like I could move again. The air around me seemed to stop holding me against my will, and I stumbled forward. Derek turned and, with a short wave in my general direction, he headed towards the front door. He turned right and headed down the sidewalk, disappearing from view. I found myself fighting to stay where I was instead of rushing to the door after him.

Derek couldn't make me feel anything. The emotions and thoughts that were rushing through me were all mine. So what did that mean for me?

The moment the door closed behind Derek, Xavier looked at me. I could tell that he was just dying to ask me whatever questions were on his mind. And I knew that he wasn't pleased with the fact that he had caught me in the storage room with another guy. I realized, just then, that I'd been thinking about kissing a boy in my mom's storage room. Xavier was the only boy that I had kissed back there. Did he think that I was cheating on him or something? We had never said that we were together. The kisses between us had been awkward at best and were usually forgotten. And there were only about five of them, maybe even less.

And I realized that when I was with Derek in that storage room, Xavier hadn't even crossed my mind. It had been all Derek, all the time. And that was a little bit scary.

I reached for the plastic bowl of orange chicken and popped the lid off, picking up a plastic fork to stir the chicken and the white rice. Xavier didn't say anything to me, and I could tell that he was angry. He just didn't want to sign something because it would mean that he was more curious than he was angry, and he didn't want me to know. I knew him well enough to decode his actions, though. And besides that, I had become an expert at reading people's body language. He really did want to know. I figured that I knew _what_ he wanted to know, too. He wanted to know why Derek was hanging around, why I had an interest in him, why we had been standing so close to each other in the storage room.

As I finished my lunch and reached for the fortune cookie sitting in front of me, Xavier turned to look at me. He glanced at the office, where my mom was still locked away, before meeting my gaze. His hands moved quickly as he questioned me. "Who is he, and why do you look like you've seen Jesus?"

I choked on a laugh. Shaking my head, I cracked open the fortune cookie and pulled out the tiny slip of paper. On the back, it gave me a series of lucky numbers. I noticed that my age was on the list – nineteen – as was today's date, August thirtieth, which came up with both eight and thirty. Turning the slip over, I looked down at the slip of paper.

When I read it, I swallowed my laugh.

The future waits for you to come to it.

**I hope you guys enjoyed chapter three! Excuse any grammatical/spelling errors, since I literally just finished typing this before I uploaded it. Also, please take the time to leave me a quick review in the box below. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Peace. (:**


	4. DTR: Define the Relationship

**BreeTico – Haha, Xavier's a funny guy. He's also slightly jealous, a little indecisive, definitely a bit nerdy and totally, completely charming. If it weren't for a guy like Derek overshadowing him, Xavier would totally be on my list of fictional characters that I want to befriend in real life. And I'm excited to write about Derek's family! They're a little more eccentric and off-base than the Jacobsons are, so it will definitely be interesting! (:**

**AwesomeSauce220 – Thanks for the suggestion. Some of these chapters are going to be primarily dialogue, while some are going to be more thought-based. Chapter three was basically focusing on whether or not Emily could trust and believe in Derek. However, I will try my best to add more dialogue into the upcoming chapters. Thanks for the review! (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_4: DTR (Define the Relationship)_

I stared down at the slip of paper that was my fortune. I had never really taken anything like fortune cookies, or even psychics, seriously. But the cookie had made my hands feel a little clammy and my stomach tighten. The future waits for me to come to it, huh? Well, wasn't that tastefully ironic. I flipped it over and looked at the numbers for a second time. Listed together with a small line of Chinese characters underneath were about five numbers. Eight, thirty, nineteen, nine, and twenty-six. Seemingly random numbers, but could they really be lucky numbers for me?

Xavier waved a hand in front of my face, as if I had zoned out. I guess I sort of had. I was gripping the fortune slip so tightly that my fingers were turning white. Finally, I dropped it, throwing it towards the computer monitor haphazardly, hoping that it would just disappear. I was just feeling a little out of it, that was all. The fact that Derek had stepped in here, given me emotions that I never would have thought I would feel, and then flitted out after leaving his phone number had really messed with my head. Not to mention the information overload he had given me. I shook my head and settled back into my chair, trying to forget about that little slip of paper hidden behind the speakers. Trying to forget about the boy who had stepped into my life and, within minutes, had turned it upside down. Trying to forget about the fact that another boy stood in front of me, concerned that there was something wrong with me. I could see it in his face. I could see it in his eyes. I could see it in the set of his shoulders.

"I'm fine," I spouted out, despite the fact that he hadn't asked me anything. I knew it was just a matter of time until he did, though. "I just don't feel well," I told him. The moment I said it, I realized that it was true. There was a gentle pounding in my forehead. Not enough to cause me significant amount of pain or to make me act like someone else completely, but it was _there_. There was also a slight ache in my lower back, and my neck creaked like I had slept on it funny.

Those were all simple things, I reminded myself, things that could be explained away by something other than the fact that my supernatural soul mate – significant, or whatever he had called it – had left my side and, consequently, left me open to the simple muscle pains that plagued the entire nation. That was out of the question. Even debating the truth behind it made me insane.

Xavier cracked open his cookie as I shoved a piece of mine into my mouth, hoping that it would calm me down just a little bit. He read it to himself and smirked, folding it back up. While I had always ignored my fortunes, Xavier believed in them wholeheartedly. He kept every single one of them, determined to prove to me that one day they would really come true. Lifting his hands, he started signing to me. "Are you going to tell me about this guy, or are you just going to pretend that I didn't see anything?" The set of his mouth told me that he wasn't really pleased about the whole thing, but the little crinkle around his eyes assured me that he was going for teasing right now. He probably hadn't really decided what it was that I saw in Derek yet, and he figured that I was just taken by his appearance or something else. I tried not to smile as I thought about the truth behind it.

Choosing to answer out loud instead of signing, I said, "His name is Derek Stanton. He's a… friend of mine." I struggled to find the right word to describe Derek. He was, apparently, my soul mate. My significant. But I couldn't tell that to Xavier. And I couldn't let him know that I'd just met the guy literally minutes before, when our fingers touched over a five dollar bill. _Friend_ seemed like the safest word, though deep down inside, I wondered if I'd just unconsciously friend-zoned him. And then I wondered if that really was a bad thing.

"A friend?" Xavier echoed, his mouth moving with his hands. He usually tried to just sign to me. He said it made it seem more like we had our own language, and that it was more fun that way. Only when he was really shocked or just didn't really care did he speak and sign at the same time. "How long have you known him?"

I chewed on the other half of my fortune cookie, trying to formulate an answer. _Thirty minutes_ probably wasn't going to fly with him, so I chose something vague, hoping that he would just accept it and move on. Clearing my throat, I answered, "A while."

Xavier shook his head. I should have known that he wouldn't let me off the hook that easily. Instead, he was going to dig for answers, and that meant that I was in trouble. "How long is a while?"

"Long enough," I answered, doing my best to evade him. Instead, I just made it worse by blurting out the first thing that came to mind, as was custom with me. "I'm meeting his family, so it's been long enough." I told Xavier, tossing my fortune cookie wrapper and the bowl my orange chicken had come in into the trashcan just under the desk. I wasn't mad at Xavier, per say, I was just annoyed that he wouldn't let it go. But maybe it was best to act like I was annoyed with him, because then he would take a step back and let me "cool down." But he was probably a little mad at _me._ We'd been friends – best friends, even – for well over a year and I'd never met his parents or his brother.

I avoided meeting his gaze, instead focusing on my computer screen. I wished that he would just back up and leave me alone. It was usually what he did. But this time, of course, it seemed like he'd decided that he needed to fix whatever he had done wrong _right that minute_. Determined to ignore him, I double clicked on the internet icon on the computer desktop, waiting for the homepage to load. I drummed my fingers on the countertop as Xavier leaned over, the loose, silky fabric of his short tie hanging from his neck obstructing my view.

I glanced up at him and watched his hand movements. "There's something more to him, I know. What is it? What about us?" I paused and took in his face. Xavier was darker skinned than I was – his mother was a Hispanic and his dad was English. Xavier had been gifted with wavy dark hair and large brown eyes framed by long, dark lashes. He had high cheekbones and a sharply pointed chin. He was tall and thin, more lanky and agile than broad and strong, though there was a hint of muscle underneath his retro T-shirt and loose, miniature tie combination. I couldn't see the rest of his ensemble, but I knew it consisted of jeans that were technically too skinny for a boy and black high-tops with the laces nearly undone. Xavier was handsome, witty, funny and sarcastic. But he wasn't Derek. And that realization sort of hurt a little bit. In minutes, a man I hardly knew had managed to become first on my list of priorities, above my best friend, even.

I shook my head and deftly typed in the URL address for the popular social networking site around. My mom usually hated it when I logged on at work, though there wasn't much to look at. I had a little under one hundred friends, including Xavier, the majority of my deaf people support group and even some of their parents. A few of my friends from middle school, including Bailey, had added me on their friends list, but I never really wrote directly to her and she never really wrote to me. I scrolled down the front page that allowed me to read what everyone else was doing as Xavier tried to work an answer out of me. I didn't want him to see what I had gotten on the website to do, so I tried my best to stall and give him the answers that he wanted.

Glancing up at him, I gave a small shrug. "What about us?" I asked. I knew my voice was a whisper with that innate sense that just lets you know those things, but I couldn't truly be for sure about my volume. I had had my mother tell me to quiet down on multiple occasions when I'd accidentally spoken too loud, and there had been times when she'd asked me to speak louder.

Xavier leaned back a little, like he'd just been slapped. Immediately, I felt bad. But it was the truth. What about us? He had kissed me about five times in the back storage closet with closed lips, kisses that had only lasted for seconds. Kisses that had honestly felt like they were just… experimental. Like they didn't really add up to anything. Xavier was my brother, my best friend, and that was something that I had never really been willing to mess up. That was why I hadn't asked him to define our relationship. I had just pretended, like he did, that there was nothing really going on between us. Because there wasn't. "What do you mean?" He signed to me.

I glanced away, at the picture of me that was my profile picture. It was one of me and Xavier, scrunched together into one of the big armchairs at my house. I was curvier than Xavier was (in what I had been assured by my mother was in a very womanly, shapely fashion.) Honestly, it wasn't that hard for a stick to be curvier than my best friend because he was sort of like a slightly muscled beanpole. The two of us had managed, though, to fit ourselves into the leather armchair, his bony hip digging into my side as I curled my legs up to my chest. I remembered my mom coming in, wondering if her camera was working. She had decided to use us to see if it was, and had snapped a quick succession of pictures. In the first ones, Xavier was making a funny face next to me. In one of the last ones, he'd draped an arm over my shoulder and we'd beamed up at my mom with cheesy fake smiles. It seemed fitting, and slightly sadistic, that I was looking at a picture of the two of us right when Xavier was asking me questions that could make or break our friendship.

I leaned back in my chair, pulling my knees up to my chest just like I had in the photograph. I glanced at him for a moment and said, "I don't know, Xavier. It's never really been… anything more than just friends, I guess." I did my best not to meet his gaze because honestly, I was sort of scared of what I would see there. I had been thinking all this time that whatever Xavier and I had shared in the back storage room was nothing more than a few pecks. Xavier, apparently, thought of it differently.

After a moment I did look up to see him staring down at his shoes. I didn't say anything to him, and I doubted that he was saying anything to me. He would know that I would have no idea that he was speaking unless he was signing or looking directly at me, anyway. So I just sat there until he lifted his gaze to meet mine. Whereas Derek was open with his thoughts and emotions through his eyes, Xavier was guarded so heavily that it would take an army tank to break down his walls. It was rare for me to see any sort of "girly" emotions from my best friend. He liked to think that he was the strong, stoic type who wasn't plagued by feelings of guilt, shame, or depression. And this time around, Xavier was like steel.

He shook his head, glaring away from me to his left, a sure sign that he was about to tell me a lie. Either that, or he was just really very angry and didn't want to meet my gaze. He didn't have the body language of someone that was nervous. He didn't even have the body language of someone that had been hurt. It was just… anger. Despair, maybe, if you stretched it a little bit. He quickly signed, "No, you're right. There's nothing there."

With that, he turned and left, heading for the back door that led into the alleyway behind the store. My mom was pretty lenient on the hours, but I wasn't sure how she would take Xavier's leaving today. First he had gone to get food (understandable and delicious) and now he was exiling himself to the back room or the alley, leaving me to deal with the floor.

I was usually at the shop from opening to at least six if not closing. I didn't have anywhere to go except for the support group that I had been purposely missing out on the last few times around. I didn't go out with friends (Xavier was really my only friend, and I'd gone and made him mad at me) and I had never really been to Xavier's house. It was always the two of us at the shop, out in public, or sitting at my house and watching a movie with the subtitles scrolling across the bottom. I watched him walk away from me and wondered if I had, in the end, messed up our friendship anyway.

With a heavy sigh, I was aware of the fact that there were slight tears coming to my eyes. I was somewhat of a crier. Embarrassingly so, actually. I never wanted to cry in front of other people, but it was close to impossible for me to keep my eyes from prickling with tears when I was frustrated, scared, or genuinely upset. I didn't actually _cry_ most of the time, but my sight blurred because of the tears gathering under my lashes. And I was doing that now, tearing up. It was partly because I was mad at myself for not handling the situation better, partly because Xavier had suddenly sprung this on me (he had never, not once, spoken about us being anything more than friends.) And now he'd left because he didn't even want to be in the same room as me.

Interestingly enough, at a time when I would have usually rushed to my mom's side, I found myself longing for someone very different from my mother. I found myself wishing that Derek would just sweep into the store and take a hold of my hand. It was like the calmness that he gave me was a drug that I relied on too heavily. I _needed_ it. And it was a ridiculous notion because I'd only really met him this morning.

As I stared at the computer screen, at the homepage of the social website, at my picture of me and Xavier, I decided to follow through with my plan. Derek's sudden entrance into my life had certainly caused a few problems already. And by the sound of it, even though I was supposed to be blissed out by it all, it was going to get harder. How could I live a normal life – well, as normal as my life could be – when I was hiding the fact that I had imprinted with my soul mate because he was a supernatural being? Surely they would think that I had gone insane and would drag me off to some institution. And even Derek had told me himself that I was going to need him, that he was the only one that could help me with the withdrawals or whatever they were called.

It was just more reference to the fact that he was a drug. _My_ drug, but a drug all the same.

And knowing that I should have just taken a step back from whatever life I was facing with a man that claimed our shared bond would give him supernatural abilities, I clicked on the search bar at the top of the page and carefully typed in his name. _Derek Stanton_. And what do you know, his picture was the first that showed up on my computer screen.

# # #

I had entered a whole new level of crazy stalker could-be girlfriends. I wasn't sure what our relationship was exactly, but the words _soul mates_ and _significant_ hinted that there would be more of a romance type of thing going on between the two of us. Though it seemed pretty impossible – I would _not_, under any circumstances, be forced into a relationship I didn't want – I was starting to believe that it was inevitable. How does one miss someone that she had just met? How does she crave his attention, his touch, when they spoke for thirty minutes or less?

Still, it probably didn't excuse my actions. After I found Derek's page on the website, I scanned over his front page, reading all of the comments his five bajillion (okay, more like five hundred) friends had written to him. A lot of them were along the lines of _great show, man_ and _what have you been up to these days, dude_? but some of them were more personal. Most of those were from girls, asking him what he was up to and where his next so was playing. Innocent questions for a guy that was in a band. But from the girls that had their lips puckered out in what had been deemed "duck faces" with orange-tanned skin and too much makeup, it was some serious flirting. And I couldn't help but feel a little pang of jealousy at that. Those girls should not have been talking to him.

The only reason why? _Because I felt that way_.

After thoroughly disappointing myself with the comments from girls who thought they had a chance with him, I settled for clicking through his pictures. For a guy that was supposedly on his road to fame, he didn't really have that many pictures. Most of the ones he had posted himself were of himself with various animals – dogs and cats and even some with a large snake that reminded me of a boa. There were a few pictures of what could only be his family, a _large_ family, at that. But the majority of pictures listed under his name were ones that other people had uploaded of him. Most of the time he was standing on a small ramshackle platform of a stage, wearing close to the same thing that he'd been wearing when he was at the store, strumming away on a guitar.

I wasn't sure if everyone else could see him the way I did. That his eyes were not focused on the crowd or the chords that his fingers played, but instead they were either closed or focused on a wall, as if he wasn't concerned with the fact that he was standing in front of a bunch of people that were, probably, calling his name. Despite all of the people and the lights and the blurriness of the photos, he looked like he was genuinely at peace.

From some of his photos, I deduced that he was in a band called _Triple Threat Touchdowns_. I pondered over whether or not they were a bunch of guys with a penchant for basketball and football before I found their page. It seemed like the band had created a page that their fans could log onto and write comments and questions about. Videos from various clubs and bars played across the front of the screen, as well as audio files and paragraphs that were bits of their original songs. There were photos, too, hundreds of photos. Derek wasn't the only guy that was handsome enough to turn heads in his band. The bassist was handsome in his own way with his funky dyed hair and multiple piercings. The lead singer looked like he was better fit for a position on the football team (a reason behind their band name?) and the drummer was a slightly chubby guy with a goatee and a spike of hair on top of his head. They weren't a bad bunch altogether, but only one of the guys really had my attention.

After a while, I decided that my obsessive snooping was enough to make me crazy by definition. I returned to his personal page, where my mouse hovered over the _Become Friends_ button. I always had a little anxiety about it. I wasn't really sure why. I guess it was just another form of rejection, albeit virtually. But Derek couldn't reject me, could he? He said that he needed me as much as I needed him. But I wasn't really sure if it was the right step. Xavier would certainly get on the computer and look him over tonight, if he got the chance. Xavier was great with computers, enough that he was generally sort of nerdy in the "I can hack onto any of your files" type of way. I had no doubt that he would do some snooping of his own on Derek Stanton.

But honestly, I had to sit there and wonder what Derek really was to me. Was he someone that I had an acquaintanceship with? Was he considered my friend? I was well aware of the fact that there wasn't a "soul mate" option on the website, but is that what we really were? Boiled down to basic words, was that all there was that could describe us?

Before I could linger over it any longer, I hit the _Become Friends_ button and quickly closed out of the page. There, it was done. And even though there was a way for me to withdraw the friend request, I told myself that there wasn't one.

# # #

By the time dinner came around and my mom emerged from her office to get ready for a big date with Cal, Xavier had come around. I still wasn't sure as to where we stood on our relationship, but I figured that it couldn't have been too bad because he was smiling at me.

My mom had a dinner date with Cal, who was going to go by the house to pick her up. She left the shop early and Xavier volunteered to stay and help me close up at the end of the day. She flitted by and leaned in for a hug. I did my best not to let her touch my skin because I was sure that I was burning up. Instead, I sent her on her way and escaped from Xavier into the back office where my mom kept a small TV that was usually tuned to the news. I closed the door behind me, effectively letting Xavier know that I just needed some alone time, and sunk down on the old leather loveseat that my mom had bought at an antique shop.

I hadn't believed Derek when he said that I would suffer through withdrawals. How could I? He sounded so insane in the first place that I couldn't just focus on one aspect of his explanation. As far as the information went, the withdrawal pain that I was supposed to feel had been initially ranked near the bottom. At the time, it was so much more important for me to figure out whether or not he was insane or lying to me, and whether or not I could believe him.

Now, though, was a different story.

My mom had called in and ordered a pizza for all of us. By the time it arrived at the shop at 5:30 on the dot, I felt like someone had shot me a few times with some sort of exploding shotgun shell that only left me with remnants of pain and no actual physical damage. It had all started with a tiny headache and a pain in my lower back, escalading to a full-on migraine that had me wincing at the bright fluorescent lights of the showroom floor. The pain had spread up my spine, settling into my shoulders and the base of my neck. It had also traveled down my legs to where my feet were killing me as well as a stinging in my thighs and a splitting pain on my shins. Around that time I started to feel hot, like I was coming down with a fever.

It had been a little over eight hours since I'd seen Derek, and I was already feeling like I was melting inside my shoes. How was I supposed to deal with this? How could I tell my mom that I needed a guy to come see me because he would make all of the sick feelings disappear? How could I tell Xavier that the very guy he obviously did not like was the only one who could really take care of me?

Fighting back a groan, I turned on the TV and switched it to some movie station. I had no idea what was going on, and I was too tired to read the subtitles and figure it out. Instead, I curled up into a ball on the couch, arms crossing over my stomach and closed my eyes. I was hoping that maybe sleep would be an outlet out of this pain that I felt.

But instead of sleeping, all I wondered was: how could this much pain come from something that was supposed to be perfect?

**DTR. Oh, dear. Always a slightly awkward conversation to have. Anyway, I want to thank you all for reading this and giving me your continued support. As always, I ask that you leave me a quick note in the box below with your thoughts on the chapter above. Thanks! Peace (:**


	5. Do You Believe Me Now?

**BreeTico – It's definitely always awkward when two people aren't on the same page. It definitely sucks to be the one that thinks that there is something more when there really isn't. And I feel so bad for her, too. Withdrawals would absolutely be **_**awful**_**. I know the frustration of not being able to write or read for a long time, but that's nowhere near withdrawals (I imagine.) And you know I'll update soon! I've been on a roll with these chapters to the point where I've had them written for a week, just waiting to be uploaded. (;**

**supernatural94 – Why, thank you very much. (:**

**AwesomeSauce220 – Thanks for the suggestion. It hasn't really gotten to the point where Emily has needed to have a conversation with her mother. Besides, all of Emily's conversations with her mom would be lies on Emily's side. Anyway, as I've said, there hasn't really been a need for her to speak to her mother quite yet, but it is coming up. Thanks for the review (:**

**Complete Chocoholic – I really liked the last sentence, too! I'm a sucker for good lines at the endings, even if it is just a chapter ending, and I absolutely love cliffhangers. I'm glad you like the longer chapters (as do I) because I've been trying to extend chapter numbers without making them overwhelming. Thank you so much for the praise, it really means a lot! And, thank you for being a faithful reader (and reviewer, tee-hee)! (;**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_5: Do You Believe Me Now?_

I was jerked awake by someone shaking my shoulder. Honestly, it hurt a lot more than it should have. I gasped as my eyes flew open, taking in the feverish feel of my skin and the pain curling in my stomach like a panther waiting to leap. I looked up into the soft, dark brown eyes of Xavier. Apparently, I had been able to fall asleep and numb the pain, if only for a short while. But now, the moment that consciousness had come back to me, it was like I'd been hit by a train.

Xavier pressed the back of his hand to my forehead, drawing away to sign, "You're burning up. Are you feeling sick?"

I figured that it was obvious. I thought about just lashing out at him, snapping an answer that would make him think that I had also tapped into a darker, more vicious side of me. Instead, I settled for a sleepy nod that rattled my brain in my skull. I let my eyelids droop, thinking that maybe he would just let me get some sleep. Instead, though, I felt his arms tuck under me before I was lifted up to his chest. Despite the fact that I felt like my skin was slowly bubbling off my bones, I liked the feeling of being cradled against someone else. But there was also a zing of pain that said I was doing something wrong. I tried to shake it off. It wouldn't last forever, anyway. Xavier certainly wasn't very strong enough to carry me very far – that was evident by his slightly halting, obviously quickened step as he led me straight to the front door. He only managed to carry me across the floor of the shop to the door before setting me down on my feet.

He pushed open the door for me, taking a hold of my hand as he gingerly led me out into the night sky. I liked the city at night. Even though it was dark outside, the city came alive with lights and people that had decided that they'd rather be out clubbing and partying instead of sleeping. I had never really been one that floated around in those crowds, but sometimes I wished I _could_ be. At least they got a change of scenery every now and then.

Xavier led me directly to his run down car, opening the front door for me. I slipped into the passenger seat, and he checked to make sure that my arms and legs were inside before slamming the door behind me. The entire car shook with the impact of the door against its frame. Xavier turned around and retrieved the keys from his pocket, locking up shop before turning and coming towards me and the car. He slid into the driver's seat and drove me home.

We never really talked on our rides. How could we? I couldn't hear what he was saying, and he had to look at me when I was reading lips. He couldn't take his hands off of the wheel to sign to me. So instead we stayed in perpetual silence that wasn't really all that _bad._ Xavier turned up whatever music he was listening to, sometimes so loudly that it would have erased normal conversation completely. The only way I knew was by the distinct shutter of the car's entire frame as the radio blasted.

Within ten minutes, Xavier pulled up in front of my house. I grabbed my purse that he had thrown onto the floorboards. My entire body creaked like I'd suddenly aged eighty years as I pushed open the door and crawled out. He opened his own door and came around the front. I forced myself to unzip my purse and pull out my keys. Even my _fingers_ hurt. I tried my best to look like I wasn't feeling like I was falling apart, but Xavier could tell that I felt sicker than just a fever.

"You okay?" He signed to me as we took the steps up the front of my house. The house was two stories, though the second floor was nearly entirely mine. The staircase led up to a short hallway with two doors – one that led to my bedroom which had its own bathroom; the other was an attic. It would suck to get up the stairs, but once I was in my room my mom would probably leave me alone. Ever since I'd gotten my high school diploma, she had gotten a little less involved in my life. I think she was just scared that if she didn't back off a little bit, I would leave her. And she thought that I wouldn't be able to handle life without her.

"I've got the flu or something." I told him, knowing full well that the flu wasn't really what was raging through me. Derek hadn't been lying to me. He'd told me I'd have these withdrawals where the only cure was to touch him. If he wasn't lying about the way I felt, the visions I saw, and the withdrawals that were raging through me… then what was he lying about? Was it possible that he was telling me the complete and total truth?

Yes, it was totally possible.

"Do you need anything?" Xavier motioned to me as I turned to look on him on my front stoop.

I shook my head. "I'll take an aspirin, and I'll be fine." I told him tiredly. I put my key in the lock and twisted it sharply. I paused to look up at him before going into the house, forcing a small smile to him. But he wasn't going to let me just go. He reached out and grabbed a hold of my wrist, drawing me closer to him.

As I stood there, wrapped up in Xavier's arms, I realized that there had been a point in time when I would have been perfectly happy where I was. There used to be a point where having Xavier look at me like he was would make my heart pound. And it did bang against the inside of my chest, but it was in a different way. This time, I wanted him to let me go, to not hold me so close. Just allowing him in my personal space made me feel like I was doing something horribly wrong. And, the more I thought about, I started to think about Derek. He had said that the imprint meant that I was his and he was mine. Was that why I was feeling like having my best friend too close to me meant that I was cheating on the guy that I'd just met?

I pulled away as gently as I could while also trying to distance myself from him. He seemed like he knew that I was trying to separate us, but he also seemed like he wasn't bothered by it. I gave him a smile as he leaned forward. Panicked for a second, I thought he was going to kiss me. But his lips just gently touched my cheek, though I still felt the roiling in my stomach that told me that even that was wrong.

Xavier leaned forward and covered my hand with his on the doorknob, twisting it open. I stepped inside, turning to look at him. "Thanks, Xavier." I told him quietly, "I'll talk to you later." He nodded and I closed the door behind me, lingering at the window to make sure that he got to his car and down the street okay. I leaned against the glass and waited until his car rolled away from the curb.

With a heavy sigh, I let out a groan. Leaning against the wall, I tucked my keys into my purse and headed for the stairwell. It hurt my back and my knees to take the stairs but I did, slowly. Once I reached the top I turned to my bedroom and pushed open the door. I loved my bedroom. My mom had really gone out of her way to make it really pretty. Decorated in chocolate brown and baby blue, it was feminine and cute but mature.

Kicking off my shoes, I collapsed onto my bed, a little too tired to even shrug out of my jeans and into my pajama shorts. Almost too tired to move, I reached for my cell phone and dug around for the folded up piece of paper that Derek had given me. At the bottom, his number was printed clearly. I slowly opened up a new contact form, typing in _Derek_ at the name, skipping over his home number. I typed in his cell phone number slowly and deliberately, ignoring the open fields for his email and home address.

Once that was complete, I lay back on my pillow and stared at it. It offered me the chance to tag his contact with a picture. I didn't have a picture of Derek, but I found myself wishing that I did. After a moment of just staring at his number – part of it was already committed to my memory, as embarrassing as it was – before clicking off of it and opening a new text message. I selected his name from my list of contacts. Usually, I would have pondered over what to say to him. But this time, I was so tired that I didn't even care. IT'S ME. YOU WERE RIGHT. I pressed send before I could second guess myself.

I closed my eyes, only realizing after a little while that I hadn't taken any aspirin. Honestly, I doubted that it would do anything to help me. Derek had told me that they were withdrawals from _him_. There wasn't really anything physically ailing me. With a groan I rolled over only to feel my phone vibrating on the bed. Reaching over the pick it up, I squinted at the bright screen. Derek had texted me back.

Was it so weird of me to be completely pleased by the fact? My heartbeat picked up its pace and I found myself smiling despite the fact that I just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. Opening the text message, I read, DOES THAT MEAN YOU BELIEVE ME, MS. EMILY?

I laughed despite the fact that his sarcasm really wasn't helping me. At least I knew that he had a personality more like mine. He was willing to laugh over things that pained him, assuming that he was feeling the same things I was. I hit reply and wrote, I GUESS I BELIEVE YOU BY DEFAULT. I'M DYING HERE. I chewed on my lip over the last sentence. Would that really be the right way to let him know that yes, I was feeling like I was being ripped to shreds? Eventually, I just shrugged and pressed send. I was a blunt person, as I was starting to believe that he was, too.

His text came back in record time. I'LL COME SEE YOU. ADDRESS?

THIS DOES NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO STALK ME. I sent back. I debated sending him my address. But honestly, it wouldn't be that hard to find me if he did some sleuthing. According to him, my heartbeat allowed him to know exactly where I was. And it wasn't too hard to look up Bryson in the phonebook. After another second's deliberation, I sent him another message with my address attached.

It only took a little while for him to text me back. IS YOUR MOM HOME? I'M OUTSIDE. I nearly bolted out of my bed to see him. I was feeling sick to my stomach, like I was going to puke. But I knew he was on the other side of that door, and he promised me peace and comfort. I hobbled out of my bed and nearly skidded down the stairs, tripping over my own feet.

I reached the door and quickly undid the locks. Only after I had them undone did I pause to think about what I was doing. I was opening my door to a relative stranger. I had told him where I lived. I had given him my phone number. But, according to him and the pain that I was in, he wasn't lying to me. He was my soul mate, and apparently we were stuck together for the rest of our lives. So I guess it didn't really matter anymore. I needed to stop overthinking things and just _go_ with it.

Opening up the door, I barely had time to register him on the front stoop before he stepped over the threshold, his hands cupping my face. The withdrawals that I was feeling slipped away, and I knew I sighed. By the way that his shoulders shrugged at about the same time, I would venture a guess that he had sighed, too. His eyes were glowing despite the dim light in the room. He took a step back, releasing his hold on me.

For a second, I was confused, and slightly embarrassed. I mean, I was wearing the vintage band T-shirt that I wore to work and a pair of pajama shorts that were soft baby pink with little penguins on them. He lifted up his hands in front of him and slowly started signing something to me, as if he was trying to remember. I felt a smile cross my face as he did so. Xavier was the only person I knew who had taken the initiative to learn sign language so he could speak to me more easily. I'd known Derek for a few hours and he was already doing the same. That had to mean _something_, right?

Derek was trying to say, "Hi, it's nice to see you again." His motions were a little jerky, like a new beginner's always were. I found myself laughing, and he looked up with a smile on his face. He wasn't at all bothered by the fact that I was laughing at his inability to sign something that simple to me. He thought it was just as funny as I did. Reaching forward, I took a hold of his hands and folded his fingers down, helping him follow through with the motion.

"Nice try," I said to him. He grinned at me a little ruefully, like he wished that he could have just picked up an entire language in just a few hours. But he also seemed a little amused, like he should've guessed, and that it was, in fact, pretty funny. I didn't let go of his hand, and instead held onto his a little tighter. "It's okay. It's always a little hard at first. You'd be surprised how long it took me to pick it up. And it was sort of needed on my part." I flashed him a smile that I hoped he took as reassuring.

I reached out to the nearby hall closet and pulled it open, marveling over the fact that muscles that had been sore moments before felt just fine. My fever was gone, as was the pounding headache. With just his touch, Derek had cleared up whatever made me feel sick. If that wasn't proof, then I didn't know what was. Opening the door, I reached for a small whiteboard and dug into a box of dry erase markers. Handing them and a small, marker-covered washrag to him, I said, "Here, use these."

He raised them briefly in thanks. I gave him a wide smile and directed him to the living room. My mom wasn't home yet. She was a little more eccentric than her boyfriend, Cal. Cal was extremely nice, but slightly awkward and geeky. He was worse than Xavier, who reveled in his hipster-nerd look. But he was faithful and loyal to my mother, and he did whatever she wanted. My mom had been a partier back in her good old days, and she still partied now, albeit like a middle-aged woman. Instead of clubs, she spent her time at bars that played ESPN on their flatscreens and cheered with old high school friends, or they went to dreamy little restaurants or walks around the park or whatever romantic outing she could think of. I was sure that we had plenty of time to hang out until my mom got back, and even if she did come in through the door, she would let me have my time with Derek. She would be curious, of course, but she wouldn't make me kick him out unless it was well into the wee hours of the morning.

I motioned for Derek to take a seat. "Do you want anything to drink?" I asked. He shook his head as he sat down on the couch. I wanted to sit down right next to him, but that was a little ridiculous. I understood the reason for us needing to be close enough to touch, but I didn't want to invade his space. Granted, there was a good chance that he wanted me in his space just as much as I wanted to be in his space, but I wasn't going to test out that theory right away. I chose to sit on the opposite end of the couch, leaning against the arm as I faced him, my knees drawn up to my chest.

We sat there for a moment, just looking at each other. I wondered if it was awkward for him, or if it just was to me. I was used to silence. But I couldn't imagine what it was like to just sit there and listen to him breathe in and out. Interestingly enough, I actually _longed_ for it. If only I could hear his breathing, or his sigh, or his voice when he spoke to me.

Finally, I decided to just let him know exactly what was on my mind. I cleared my throat, and his eyes locked in on mine. I nearly faltered on my words, but I managed to speak. "This is really… it's really insane." I told him. The corners of his lips quirked up into a slight smile, but I could tell that he was wondering if I was about to send him on his way. "It's so freaking _insane_," I repeated, leaning back in my seat. "I'm sort of all over the place, you know. Eccentric and rational at the same time. Two pieces that shouldn't fit together but do." I wondered if I was telling him too much, but decided that it didn't matter anyway. "I'm sort of a hopeless romantic, you know. I've always dreamed that I was some princess just waiting to be found by her prince, that one day I could just be swept off my feet and carried to a castle where we would live happily ever after and I would be able to hear again and…." I let my voice trail off, shaking my head. It was stupid for me to tell him that. For one, it would make me seem spoiled, like I expected to be taken care of. But secondly, it was just sort of embarrassing. I was sure that he didn't want to hear everything that I had ever thought.

Derek bent over the whiteboard I gave him. He scribbled something across the board and then handed it to me. I took it with both hands and looked over his note. Derek's handwriting was a little stout, the letters wider than they were tall. The majority of them were in capital letters, too. _You weren't born deaf?_

I shook my head, handing the board back to him. "No, I was perfectly fine until I was eleven. I was in a go-kart accident. It turns out that I'm not as good as a driver as I thought." I told him, giving him a slight smile. At first, right after my accident, I didn't want to talk about it. I felt stupid about the whole thing. It was my fault for thinking that I could drive the thing, and I knew that Bailey and I weren't supposed to be messing with it anyway. Back then, I'd thought that the rules didn't apply to me. I certainly learned my lesson. As the years wore on, though, I got more comfortable talking about the event that had taken my hearing from me. I gave a little shrug and added, "They're not really sure what I did to my ears to make them stop working altogether. I mean, I've had so many tests and scans and everything else that they could do, but nothing ever showed up. My mom used to say that it must've been a twist of fate and that I'm supposed to learn something from it." I told him. My mom was a big believer in destiny and fate and the principle that every single person had a path that they were supposed to follow. I'd always been a little opposite, saying that we could make our own roads if we tried hard enough.

Derek grinned, wiping off the board with the washrag. He poised the marker over it for a second before his eyes darted to me. He lifted the board a little more so I couldn't see what he was writing before scribbling something down. Holding it out to me, his smile was so broad that it would probably be safe to say that he was grinning from ear to ear. _I think I'd like to meet your mom one day. Aces are really into fate and destiny._

I handed the board back once I read it. "Are they? I mean, how do they explain tragedies and stuff? Like, those things are supposed to happen? Why can't I just make my decision and move on with my life?" I asked. I was starting to wonder if debating deep thoughts like this was proper etiquette on a first date. And then I stopped myself, because this wasn't really a date, was it?

I read Derek's message. _Fate is decided for us because we can't control the way the universe works. And honestly, if you think about it, your decisions lead you to fate. It's sort of like you're predestined to make decisions. Like me, for one. I knew that I shouldn't have gone back to the store just to see if I could talk to you, but I did, and it led me to meet you_.

"You went back to the store just to talk to me?" I asked. I probably should have paid a little more attention to our conversation about fate and destiny, but I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that a guy like Derek – aloof, handsome, obviously out of a deaf girl's league – would come around to try to talk to me. It was… mind-blowing, I guess.

_Yeah, _the board read in his blocky handwriting, _I wanted to see you. You see, sometimes people think that these imprints are the only reason people stay together. But that's not the truth at all. People that have imprints are the only people that I've really seen that are truly in love. And the imprints choose them because they know that the people are meant for each other. Before I even touched you, you caught my eye._

I spouted out a laugh. "_I_ caught your eye? Are you blind?" I asked, leaning forward a little bit as if I were thoroughly checking his eyes. I knew that I was pretty, but I wasn't a bombshell, I wasn't gorgeous, I wasn't a model. I was just… me. Nothing perfect, nothing flawless. In fact, I was far from flawless. I had a _disability_ for Christ's sake.

But I knew what he meant. Attraction. I'd felt it for him the moment he'd stepped in that door. If he'd felt the same thing for me… well, I guess it was a sealed deal then. Even if Derek's immediate attraction to me was a fraction of whatever I'd felt for him, I'd still be pretty satisfied. It had been such a strong emotion, after all.

I'd only meant to tease him. And I was pretty sure that I'd succeeded with that. But in my efforts to make him smile, I'd put myself closer to him. I was only leaning towards him, so there was still an entire couch cushion in between us, but that didn't stop me from wanting to scoot closer to him. I was still having a little trouble wrapping my brain around it all. I mean, I understood what it was and what had technically happened, I just never would have thought that anything like it would happen to _me_. And honestly, it was sort of like a saving grace. But that didn't mean that I was still iffy about some things. Like what did this mean for us? I barely knew him, but I wanted to cuddle into his side. I wanted the warmth and protection that he wordlessly promised me.

Derek looked like he was sort of thinking the same thing. I was aware of the fact that he was sort of leaning a little closer to me, too. It reminded me of the time that I'd once thought of ourselves as two separate magnets. I had wondered then if it was the sort of gravitational pull that could easily be ignored. I was starting to think that it was the kind that took steel vices to pull apart.

I found myself wanting a kiss from him. It was sort of a ridiculous notion. How could I hope that someone like Derek would kiss me after only a few hours of knowing each other? It didn't matter how much I wanted it. I was still debating about pulling away from him when the front door swung open. I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye and sat back as quickly as I could. I didn't miss the fact that Derek did the same. My mom stepped into the room, looking down at her keys. Her purse hung on the crook of her arm as she turned and lifted a hand in goodbye to Cal.

I swallowed hard and looked over at Derek. He said that he wanted me to meet his family. He said that they would be able to help me with this. But I wasn't so sure if I wanted him to meet my mom. What was I going to say to her? _Hi, mom, this is Derek. I just met him earlier today. He's my imprinted soul mate, which means that even though I don't really know him all that well, I'm supposed to be with him forever_. Yeah, no. That definitely wouldn't work. But I guess she had to meet him at some point. If we were supposed to be together forever, then he was going to _have_ to meet my mom. And it might be better to ease her into the fact that Derek was hanging around.

She looked up, her matte-painted lips curving into an _O_ as she took in the scene in front of her. Her eyes shot between the two of us, and I suddenly _knew_ that she knew that Derek and I had been closer only moments before. I was sure that we weren't helping by secluding ourselves to opposite ends of the couch like the other had cooties. She narrowed her eyes at us for a moment, her brown eyeliner making her eyes look darker and definitely a little scarier. I bit my lip and sucked in a breath. Derek's eyes slid to me, and I was reminded of the fact that he could apparently feel when I was anxious or scared. I wasn't sure what I was feeling yet.

The back of the couch was to the front door, where my mom still stood. She tried for a small smile. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. But I didn't have the chance to try and figure it out because Derek slowly reached forward, his arm barely moving as his fingers brushed over my jeaned leg. Instantly, I reached out to grab his hand, feeling the cool calmness rush through me. I was sure that I was blushing, my neck and cheeks burning, but I stood up, letting my fingers stay in his grasp for as long as I could.

"Hi, mom," I said as pleasantly as I could muster. I was also shooting for innocence. I had never really gotten in trouble all that much. I mean, before my accident I'd gotten into plenty of trouble. But ever since then, I've been the good kid, the one that never caused problems. I'd never been caught doing anything illegal – heck, I never _did_ anything illegal – and I was the perfect example of a good student and hard worker. I plastered a smile onto my face and said, "Did you have a nice night with Cal?"

She eyed me for a second before her gaze slid to Derek. Unlike Xavier, my mom usually spoke and signed at the same time. But this time her lips stayed glued shut in a line as she moved her hands. Derek leaned against the back of the couch, looking over his shoulder. I knew that he couldn't understand what she was technically saying. The fact that she wasn't speaking meant that she wasn't too pleased with the fact that I had a random guy sitting on the couch. "Who is he?" She asked me. "It's late, Emily."

I glanced over my shoulder. As if he could sense that I needed a little bit of encouragement, Derek gave me a dazzling smile. It was so warm that I was sure my mom could feel it, too. She glanced over at him as I gave a slight half-smile back. Turning to face her, I signed, "He's my friend. We were just hanging out." I turned to face him and took a hold of his shoulder. He stood up fluently, and my mom eyed him. Sitting down, Derek was pretty unassuming. I mean, he made a statement with his choice of clothes and hairstyle, but he didn't look like a towering, slightly broad man. But when he stood up, it was obvious that he was at least half a foot taller than me, if not more, and I could probably put two of me, side-by-side, to make up for the line of his shoulders.

"Mom," I said out loud, "this is my friend, Derek Stanton. Derek, this is my mom, Amy Bryson." She looked over at me for a split second before giving Derek one of the biggest smiles that I'd ever seen cross her face. She was obviously a little nervous, definitely wondering how I'd met him and why he was in our house at – I checked the hall clock – one in the morning, and why she was just now hearing about him. But she was pleased to meet someone else, because she thought that I didn't have enough friends as it was.

Derek held out his hand. I glanced at him to read his lips – "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Bryson."

Mom reached out and took his hand. I was aware of the fact that Derek had large hands. It probably made for easy playing on his guitar; he didn't have to stretch his fingers so far to reach chords. It also made me feel like he could handle things. Manly things, I guess. Like, I could easily picture him fixing a roof on a house or building or boat or something that was just testosterone-ridden. Preferably with his shirt off. I bit my lip at the thought and tried my best to squelch it. My mom's hand was much smaller as they shook. "It's actually just Ms." She told him.

Derek looked down at me a little sheepishly. "My apologies," he replied. My mom waved her hand at his words, and glanced at the hall clock next to me. She gave me a look that said it was getting late, and though she was obviously impressed with him – I could see it in her eyes and the relaxed set of her shoulders – she thought it was way too late for him to be over at the house. As if he could read her mind, Derek glanced down at the cell phone he pulled from his pocket. "It's pretty late. I should be heading home. It was nice to meet you, Ms. Bryson."

"I'll walk you out," I said, instinctively looping my hand over his slightly bent elbow. My mom looked in between us as if the movement meant the world to her. She said her goodbyes as I led Derek to the front door. I pulled it open and stepped out onto the front stoop. The light overhead was a little dim and dirty, little bugs flying around it and casting shadows on the door. Derek stepped towards the stairs and I followed, closing the door behind me.

I realized then that he was still carrying around the small whiteboard I'd given him, as well as the marker. The washrag was hanging out of his front pocket. He bit the cap off of the marker and scribbled down a note, handing it over to me. I took the whiteboard from his hands and turned it around so I could get a better look at it. _Remember that locked feeling you got earlier? Well, it's going to happen again. It lasts for a while. We just have to release each other, to let the other know that we're coming back. And I'll need to see you first thing in the morning. You'll have withdrawals again. And we need to meet my family tomorrow._

"Tomorrow?" I asked out loud as I reached over and pulled the washrag from his front pocket. I quickly wiped the note away and Derek nodded, apparently choosing to not explain it to me. I really did want to know, but I didn't think it mattered all that much. He had been pretty honest and nice to me so far, and he wasn't lying about the withdrawals, the locked feeling, the calm he gave me, or the intense interest in him. If he wasn't lying to me about that, what could he possibly be hiding from me?

He formed his words very carefully. "I'll see you tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Go inside and get some sleep, okay?" I nodded, and he reached out. His fingers brushed underneath my chin, giving me one last dose of his peace. I thought that was going to be it, but he leaned forward a little bit. I was unable to lie to myself and say that I didn't sort of want for it. But like I'd been feeling all night, there was a part of me that said _no_. Instead of kissing me though, his lips pressed gently against my cheek before he let go of me and headed down the front steps. I found myself looking for a car, but that was when I realized that he'd parked a sleek black and silver motorcycle in front of my house. I had to admit that it was totally hot. He flung a leg over, gave me a quick salute, and kick-jumped it. Within seconds, he was down the road, and I was still glued to my front porch, watching him leave and wishing that I could just run after him.

I sighed and turned back to the door, knowing that when I went back inside my mother would be waiting for me, and she would have plenty of questions to ask.

**What do you think? This was a little bit of chapter fluff, but it was sort of necessary – Derek needed to meet Emily's mom, and I figured it would be a good chance for him to learn a few things about her.**

**Anyway, please leave me a review in the box below. And thank you for your continued support. Peace. (:**


	6. Family Matters

**BreeTico – As you know, I have a distinct love for snarky, sarcastic heroines. (: And of course the parent has to step in and ruin what could very well be a perfect moment! It's what they do! Haha (:**

**Guest (AwesomeSauce220?) – I'm assuming that this is you, AwesomeSauce220, since the sign off was the same. But you know what they say about making assumptions…. Anyway! Yes, Emily isn't clueless, she's actually a thinker, but she still tends to overanalyze things. Don't tear up! Thanks for the review. (:**

**supernatural94 – I love them, too!**

**Complete Chocoholic – Well I'm glad you liked this last chapter. As I said before, Derek's family is a little more lax on the rules (for instance, they follow the Don't Date rule, but they don't force their kids to follow the line of business, though it is highly suggested.)**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_6: Family Matters_

I woke up feeling like I'd been run over a car. How was it possible for me to feel this way just because I wasn't in contact with my imprinted soul mate? My imprinted soul mate. Just the thought alone was enough to make me roll over and reach for my cell phone to see if he texted me. The hope of seeing him was enough to make me push through it, if not forget about it for a few seconds. Even if my mouth felt like cotton and my entire body was sore, muscles screaming just like they had been last night.

Last night. God, that was borderline awful. After I had seen Derek off, I'd returned to the living room to find my mom sitting on the couch where I'd been sitting with Derek only moments before. She had directed me to sit down, where she thoroughly questioned me about him. I tried my best to get away from her with vague answers because I couldn't explain how I'd allowed him close enough to me to let him into the house during the wee hours of the morning. And worse, I couldn't tell her his age, his birthday, or even if he had brothers and sisters. After telling her that I just didn't feel all that well, she let me retreat my bedroom with a warning that she would finish her questioning later.

I picked up my phone, hoping to see a text message from him. Knowing that he was on his way (probably) to take away my withdrawals made them a little more bearable. I didn't have any text messages, though, and I was almost sure that I felt my heart sink a little bit. Right as I was about to set it down, and I gave myself the proper moment of thinking that I truly was psychic and had somehow sensed the incoming message, the screen lit up the phone vibrated in my hand. I'M OUTSIDE. I smiled to myself before realizing that I had just woken up. My hair was bound to be a mess and I needed to brush my teeth.

Quickly, I typed back a message: GIVE ME FIVE MINUTES. It was probably a good thing that I had decided to take a shower last night after Derek left, to help calm me down. Lavender is said to have some dreamy-sleep qualities. Or did it attract men? I couldn't remember, but at least I smelled fresh. And attracting men couldn't be that bad, right? I only wanted to attract one man in particular, and I was hoping that the smell of lavender was his kryptonite.

I tossed the phone onto my bed and made myself get up, ignoring the cries of pain in my joints as I pulled on a black knee-length skirt and searched for the black camisole that had lace on the top. I knew it was around there _somewhere_. Finally, I found it and pulled it over my head, layering it under a white V-neck. I quickly brushed my hair out and twisted it into a messy side braid that hung over my shoulder. I reached for my foundation and powder, dabbing on a little eyeliner and mascara. I rushed to the bathroom and quickly brushed my teeth, unsure if the feeling in my stomach was hunger or withdrawals.

I slipped my ballet flats on and grabbed my purse, making sure that I had my wallet and ID. I even threw in one of my whiteboards, which barely fit, and a handful of markers. I tossed my phone into the bag and flung it over my shoulder. I started towards the stairs before realizing that, like most mornings, I went to work with my mom. My official shift was either between eight and twelve or four and eight, but I usually spent all day there. I didn't have anywhere else to go. It was the same reason my mom usually hung around when someone else wasn't working. I couldn't be there alone. Today, my shift was the evening shift, which meant that I was technically free until four this afternoon. But my mom would be waiting for me this morning, and she would be beyond livid if I wasn't waiting for her and had disappeared without explanation.

Clearly, I hadn't thought things through. I came to a complete stop a few stairs down and whirled back to my bedroom, picking up another one of the whiteboards that I kept in there. I quickly left her a note saying that I had morning plans with Derek and that I had my phone on me. I slid it onto the counter next to the coffee maker as quietly as I could. I could hear my mom in the shower in her bedroom, but I didn't bother to tell her I was leaving because she would only ask questions. This way, I could get away from her and have a little time to form my answers.

I flung open the door and saw Derek leaning against the side of a black muscle car. I couldn't really identify it; cars had never really been an interest for me. But I knew that it was old and classic. My eyes couldn't focus on the car for long. Instead, they shot to the guy leaning against it, booted feet crossed. He wore another pair of dark jeans that fit him just right and a dark hunter green long-sleeved shirt with the cuffs rolled up to his elbows. Just like yesterday, the few buttons at the top of his shirt were pulled open to reveal the smooth skin of his chest and throat. Derek had a smile on his face as his eyes drifted down from my face to my feet and back up. He uncrossed his arms and started towards me.

We met halfway on my sidewalk. His hands cupped my face, which I had figured was usual for him (and I honestly kind of liked it, with his big hands and the gentleness he just exuded.) His thumbs smoothed over my cheeks as I instinctively leaned into him. My eyes closed, and I was pretty sure that he had closed his eyes, too. After a moment of standing there in perfect relaxing peace, Derek dropped his hold on me and stepped back. His fingers reached for mine, his eyes scanning my face as if he was asking permission.

Almost immediately, I thought that I felt something press against my mind. It was a weird feeling, sort of like someone was pressing against my skull without actually touching me. It was like it was on the inside of my head instead of a touch on my hair. My first thought was to push it away, but my body reacted in an opposite direction, opening up to the force. The moment that it weaved its way in, though, I realized that it had to be Derek. I took a step back from him.

"Are you in my head?" I hissed. How did he do that? He hadn't mentioned that he would literally be _in my head_.

He nodded, mouthing his words to me. "We're significants. We can do things with each other that can't be done between other people. One of the things is that I can get into your head and you can get into mine. In a few days, we should be able to talk to each other in our minds."

"Seriously?" I breathed. I had accepted everything else so easily. This was just… a breach of security, in my mind. Literally_, in my mind_. I had readily believed that I had found the love of my life, that Derek was my soul mate, and that I couldn't live without him after only a few points of proof. But I wasn't so sure that I would have accepted the same terms if I'd known he could read my thoughts. What if he saw what was in there and didn't like it? What if he thought that his imprint with me was a huge mistake and hated me for it? I felt a little bit of panic rise in my chest. It would be just my luck to be offered something only to have it ripped away.

"Emily," he said, reaching out to me. In my mind, I said that I wanted to pull away from him. But, as had become custom for me, a part of me was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, saying that all I wanted to do was lean into him. In any case, he dropped his hand, giving me a slightly sad look. "There are a lot of things you still don't know. And I don't know how to tell you everything at once. It's just a lot of information that I can't cover here. That's why we're meeting my family today."

I narrowed my eyes at him. I guess it wasn't really the thought of him being in my head, which I sort of liked and sort of thought was an invasion of privacy, but it was the prospect that there was _more_ I didn't know about. I took a deep breath and was sort of embarrassed to hear that it was shaky. Derek did things to me that no one else could, from making me elated to see him to making me want him to making me beyond nervous. Derek reached out for me, his hands touching my wrists. In a move that was incredibly intimate and very pleasurable, he ran his hands up my bare arms to the sleeve of my shirt and back down to my wrists. Goose bumps erupted down my spine and my arms, and Derek gave me a tiny smile. I could easily imagined him chuckling right then.

I gave him a glare punctuated by a smile and sighed, "Okay, let's go meet your family." They promised answers. And if I was being honest with myself, I was kind of excited at the prospect of it all. It was definitely time for me to stop overanalyzing, as I was prone to doing, and just go with the flow for once in my life. I needed to step back and let fate or destiny or whatever cosmic laws that ruled the universe take care of my life, if only for a little while.

I looked down at what I was wearing and then back up to him. "Do I need to go change?" I figured that my black and white combo looked casual and cute. In retrospect, I realized that Derek and I tended to dress a little alike with dark clothes. We also looked pretty uniform together, since both of us had black hair and a slightly tanned skin tone. I couldn't help but wonder if it was in the creepy way that suggested that we were a pair made in heaven or if we were awkwardly close siblings. I could only hope for the former and try to completely erase the latter. It was not a pretty picture in the least.

"No, you look great," Derek replied, taking my arm and leading me to the car.

"What happened to your bike?" I asked him as he opened the door for me. I sat down on the long bench seat and glanced up at him. He leaned in the doorway, one hand on the roof of the car and the other on the door.

His breath was warm on my cheek as he spoke, and I focused on his lips. "It's at the house. I didn't know if you would like it or not, and it gets kind of cold on the back of one." He said. He patted the roof of the car, and even though it had been years, I still marveled at the fact that I couldn't hear it. He gave me one of his decidedly dazzling smiles and stepped back from the door, closing it behind me. I buckled myself up and watched him as he walked around the front of the car. He even had a sort of swaggering walk to him that I found attractive. And it didn't help that I blushed and barely held back a laugh at the word _swagger_.

He slid into the car next to me and twisted the keys which were dangling in the ignition. The car rumbled to life underneath me, and Derek paused to throw a grin in my direction. I smiled back and leaned against the seat. I sort of wanted to ask him about the car, just so I could have a reason to look at him. But any questions of mine would have to wait.

We drove for nearly thirty minutes. About halfway through our drive, my mom had texted me and said that we would have to talk when I got to work that afternoon. I wasn't sure if she was upset with me for leaving or for not telling her about my plans with Derek last night, but I didn't want to think about it just yet. So instead I leaned up against the door and watched as Chicago flew by.

We entered a nicer neighborhood and I sat up a little straighter. Derek lived _here_? I mean, my house wasn't awful, but this was where _really_ rich people lived. There was even talk of making it a gated community up at the front entrance since it was so swanky. I glanced over at him with eyes the size of saucers. I didn't say anything to him, and I had the distinct feeling that he was pretending not to see me staring at him, completely agape.

Derek continued down a few streets and rolled up to a house. The front driveway had a huge wrought iron gate across it. It was a lot taller than the car, the top of it pointed and decorated with filigree lacing through the bars. The rest of the gate was just bars going straight down. All except for the middle, which was curved in a circle. In the very center of the circle was what looked to be a three-pointed flame. If I took a knife and cut it in half, it would be symmetrical on either side. I stared at it, feeling like I'd seen it before. I just couldn't pinpoint where.

Derek rolled down his window and reached out to punch a number into the keypad right next to him. He brought his arm back into the car and started rolling up the window as the gate pulled open, the entire thing moving sideways into the wall right next to it. Derek waited until the gate was completely open before nudging the car forward.

From the street, I couldn't really see the house. The gate and surrounding stone walls were too high to see over, and at the top there was a line of trees. Inside the gate, though, I could see the house perfectly. It was modernized with a hint of a cottage style. It was huge with sharp corners and big windows, painted the color of adobe. Wooden shutters hung on the either side of every window. It was at least two stories. The driveway was made out of what looked to be a bunch of orangey-yellow bricks. It led up to a garage that had three wooden doors, but there was also a path that led behind the house. Derek took the path that led away from the house.

In the distance, I could see another garage. It was long and looked more like it was housing for a family of elephants. There were three large wooden garage doors. The entire thing was built to look like a miniature copy of the house. Derek reached over to me. At least, I thought he was reaching for me. But he was just reaching for the glove compartment at my knees. He opened it up and I saw that there were around five garage door openers taped to the inside. They were all lined up and had different colored tape on them. Derek pressed one of them and the corresponding door opened up. Derek pulled the car into the garage while I gaped at the fancy car he was parking next to. It was newer than the one we were in, silver in color, and had numbers and letters to tell me what it was. Derek opened his car door, but I stayed glued to my seat.

I whispered out a few words that my mom would probably be glaring at me for. But I couldn't help it. How the heck did he live over here and have all these fancy cars in his three hundred garages? I mean, my parents had been pretty well off, but it wasn't anything like _this_. My mom drove a Honda that had been pre-owned, not one of the fancy BMW's or Mercedes that were bound to be in Derek's garage. And now I wasn't just panicked over the fact that they were his family, apparently going to be like my future in-laws, but they were also _rich_. Rich kids were always snotty. Their parents weren't much better. But if Derek wasn't like that, then that meant that I should be okay, right? But then again, I didn't know Derek all that well. And following that train of thought, what was I _doing_ here? I was insane to agree to come to his house! What if he decided to suddenly turn around and tell me that he was a serial killer or something?

I was panicking. I needed to get a hold on my emotions. I took a deep breath just as Derek opened the door. It flung open so hard that it almost hit the fancy car right next to it. I realized that he had one hand over his heart on his chest, as if it pained him. That's when I remembered that he had told me that he had my heartbeat in his chest. It had just been another thing that I had stored in the back of my mind for reviewing later and hadn't really thought about it since. There had been too much going on at the time. But that was sort of impossible, right?

But then again, nothing was impossible with these people.

Derek reached into the car, and for a split second I thought about scooting away from him. It was just the fear talking because I really didn't want to do that. And I didn't. I didn't even move. Derek ducked his head into the open doorway, one of his knees resting on the edge of my seat. One of his hands touched my chin, forcing me to look up into his eyes before darting to his lips.

"Emily, breathe. There's nothing to worry about here." I imagined that he said them calmly, with a touch of concern and an overwhelming amount of softness. But that was only what I imagined. As if he sensed that I needed a little more than that, I could feel him nudging at the corners of my mind. This time, I consciously opened up to him. I wasn't sure how he could do it, but I figured it was just one of those things that you picked up. As if my mind knew exactly what to do on its own, I pushed back.

The feeling was completely out of this world, something that I had never felt before and had never imagined I would feel. It was completely surreal, but it was there – I was reading him. I knew the basics of what he was feeling, and if I looked in a certain direction hard enough, I could get an image of what he was thinking about. And there, underneath it all, was the feeling of another heartbeat against mine, pounding in unison, a little scared but more excited. And I knew, almost instinctively, that it wasn't mine but Derek's.

I leaned back, pulling away from him and taking a deep breath simultaneously. Derek took a slightly staggered step back, as if he was shocked by something. Then a huge smile burst across his face as he looked down at me. "You did it!" He exclaimed, like I'd just won a coveted award or something. I found myself smiling back even though my eyebrows were drawing together on their own accord. "You connected with me. Mentally, of course," he added. "You're doing great. We should be talking to each other in no time."

"Talking to each other?" I repeated. Derek took a step back, allowing me to climb out of my seat. I gripped the top of the door as I got my feet underneath me. Brushing out the front of my skirt and tugging down the hem of my shirt, I glanced around the garage. Usually, garages have stuff other than cars in them, like bikes and tools and lawn equipment. Well, there were bikes. At least, _a_ bike; Derek's bike. It was smooth and shiny, parked on the other side of the vintage car we'd driven here. Not exactly your neighborhood Schwinn. The rest of the garage was donated to housing a series of cars. The rest of the space was immaculately clean.

He reached out and tapped a finger on my forehead. "In our minds, remember? It's something that we can do with each other." My breath caught at that. He'd mentioned it earlier, but, like I was starting to believe that I'd been every single time he was telling me new stuff, I was overwhelmed with information and my ADD brain only picked out a few things here and there. Now, I forced myself to settle on this new (well, sort of) bit of information. I would be able to hear him? Was it like being able to hear his voice? He smiled at me, as if he knew the kind of excitement that I felt at being able to hear something again, let alone him. Or maybe he really _did_ know. "Come on, let's go inside." He said, drawing me away from the car so he could close the door behind me.

Derek led me to a door. There was another line of garage door openers, one of which he pressed before stepping outside onto what I had already mentally dubbed as The Yellow Brick Road. As we walked, he reached out and slyly took a hold of my hand. But I didn't pull away from him. I didn't even try. It just felt _right_ as we walked up the path and back around to the front of the house.

Derek nearly sped me right up to the door, as if he couldn't wait to get me into the house. I sort of liked the fact that he was so excited to introduce me to his family. Xavier had never really forced me to meet his parents and his brother. Derek, though, absolutely insisted on it. Part of it, of course, was that they could help explain what was going on to me. But I had the distinct feeling that there was a large part of him that wanted me to meet his family and be immediately welcomed into it.

As we headed up the front steps, Derek slipped his hand from my grasp to my waist. His fingers squeezed my side as we neared the front door. Right before we reached the doorway, he paused and turned to face me, his back to the door, blocking me from it. I looked up at him, aware of the fact that he was incredibly close to me. His arm was still around my waist, pulling me against him. His free hand brushed back a chunk of hair over my ear, trailing down to my neck, stopping once he reached the collar of my shirt, his hand resting on my shoulder. Our breath mingled between us as our eyes locked.

I got the distinct feeling that he _wanted_ to kiss me. Or maybe I was just deluding myself into thinking that so I could boost my ego. I hadn't managed to get a really good read on him unless I was trying, and I wasn't trying right then. Still, my heart thumped over it. Should I, or should I not, kiss the guy who was my imprinted soul mate? Before I could make up my mind, Derek took a step back, nearly completely unwinding himself from me. His hand remained on my side as he shook his head and reached for the door, twisting the knob.

The door swung open and Derek leaned in, as if he was expecting a bunch of people to be standing right there. Instead, the front hallway was empty. My eyes took in the modern decorations – glass tables, brightly colored flowers, and intricate picture frames. We both stood there a little awkwardly on the front stoop until the door hit the wall behind it. The moment it did, people popped out of nowhere, like freaking ghosts in a haunted house or something. Heads turned around hallways and people moved forward as if they stepped out of the wall themselves. Everyone looked thoroughly excited. And I instinctively shrunk into Derek's side. He'd said that I was going to meet his family, and I'd imagined his parents and brothers and sisters, if he had any. But instead, it looked like a family reunion had convened in his house.

Derek's arm tightened around me. I felt his breath in my hair before his lips pressed against my temple. I did my best not to let my eyes flutter at it, but I definitely felt the warmth he gave me swirling around inside me. It was absolutely amazing, something that I could have never imagined, and I didn't think that I would ever get used to it. With that, he let go of me. I panicked for a half of a second until he reached out and grabbed my hand, leading me inside the house.

Everyone looked like they were speaking, but I wasn't able to understand any of them. A few of them talked too fast, some of them didn't form their words very clearly, and it wasn't like I could look at all of them at once. I could practically feel my head swimming over all the people gathered here. I found myself hoping that they all lived here and that they hadn't all come to see me. I was in no way shy or claustrophobic. The only reason I didn't talk as much as I used to was because I couldn't hear what was going on around me. Other than that, I was a completely a schmoozer. I had loved to mingle and had a large group of friends back in the day. It wasn't the people that I was worried about. It was the fact that they would all be happy for Derek, since apparently this was something really big, and they were going to find out that I was flawed and nothing like they had imagined for him. Derek was the type of guy you would either see with a tiny blonde or a lanky girl who fit easily into the "emo" section of the world. I fit neither description. And I was completely deaf.

I figured that Derek would have already told them that I was deaf. It wasn't exactly something that you kept secret. At least, I figured it wasn't. But by the way some of the people looked at me with confused expressions, like they were waiting for me to answer, I guessed that maybe some of them hadn't gotten the memo. And that just made things all the more awkward. I blinked as I looked around the room, finally focusing on Derek. I nestled as close as I possibly could, hoping that he could just smooth things over for me. I hated to already be depending on him to fix things for me, but I was so out of it and confused that I didn't have the courage to do it on my own.

Derek held up his free hand, stopping his family from saying anything else. I felt the rumble in his chest as he spoke, probably telling them exactly what I wanted them to hear. But I couldn't be for sure because I hadn't read his lips. After a moment of what seemed to be relative silence, I opened up my mouth to say something and blurted the first thing that came to mind. "I'm deaf!" Immediately, I was embarrassed and felt a little sick. A blush crept up my neck, coloring my cheeks. I dropped my gaze to the floor, gripping onto my bag as tightly as I could.

Looking down at my bag, I reached for the whiteboard I stuffed in there and dug around for the markers. I pulled them out. The moment they were out in the open, I felt Derek chuckling. Most of the family looked like they had already knew that little tidbit of information, and they gave me the same look Derek had – that they thought it was unfortunate that I had to deal with it. But some of them seemed completely taken aback by it. I tried not to let myself linger on them and instead, I looked up at my significant, a grin plastered across my face even though I felt like this was one of the most awkward things that had ever happened to me in my entire life. And that was nineteen years of awkwardness.

I handed the board to Derek, who took the markers and started making introductions. I read the name and the person in question held up the board so I could try to match their names to their faces. I met Derek's parents, who insisted on me calling them by their given names – Victoria and Robert. I met Derek's two sisters and two brothers. In their birth order, they ran: Carissa, Zach, Derek, Jack, and Madison. After that, names went in a blur as I met aunts, uncles, cousins, and his grandparents. I couldn't begin to remember all of them. They even told me about some of their abilities. Derek's mom could converse with animals and his dad was a whiz with anything that had an engine. One of his aunts could change the color of objects, which she proclaimed was lame but I still thought was pretty awesome. I was so blown away by all of it that I couldn't even remember everything else, much less stand there and just read the board. My hands were shaking as I held it.

We had moved from Derek's front room to the living room, where I was granted a seat right next to my significant. Derek kept a hold of the whiteboard and wrote down almost everything for me, since apparently he had one of the best scripts in the family and wanted to ensure that he could explain things to me thoroughly.

Two hours later, and I had basically been given a crash course in the world of the Aces. I learned about the council that was in the process of being torn apart and being rebuilt by a girl a year younger than me who was like a queen to them. They called her the Visionary, and she belonged to basically _the_ greatest clan, or family. I learned about their family reunion once a year in London called reunification. I learned about the basic laws of the families, the history of the Aces, and particularly the new imprints. Derek had told me that they were apparently more potent than they used to be, from abilities to strength to the tattoos on their wrists. I remembered where I had seen that flame on the front gate before. It had also been stamped onto the pendant Derek wore around his neck. Half of it was tattooed on the inside of Derek's wrist, and I would supposedly gain one later in the future, after the ascension. It was supposed to be the big moment of an imprinted couple; it was the time when the two of us would gain abilities, even me, even though I was a human.

I managed to keep my composure throughout all of it, even though it felt like my mind had been fried. Derek made sure that his arm was pressed against mine the entire time, keeping our healing bond open between us. Throughout the entire information vomit, he was holding his mind close to mine. I managed to make it through what felt like an entire year-long class on the basics of Aces, with the promises that I was going to learn even more in the future when the time came. I wondered what that was supposed to mean, but I was so tired and thrown off that I couldn't find it in me to ask about it.

I had to give up on the idea that Derek was crazy. He hadn't lied to me at all throughout all of this. The things that he had showed me had proved to be true. It would be absolutely stupid for me to believe that he was lying to me now, that he and his family had orchestrated something so big like this. And it was sort of wrong of me, too. Derek was my other half, my soul mate, and he deserved to be given every ounce of my trust. In all honesty, I think deep down I gave it to him from the very first moment, and I only forced myself to second guess him.

And even though I trusted him, I was still thrown off by the next words that were written down on the board. It was just something that I hadn't expected at all. Derek even looked nervous despite the fact that we pulled anxiety from each other as he handed me the board.

_My father wants you to know one last thing. It's sort of important with the Aces. Once an imprint is made, the woman generally goes and lives with the man's family. They are usually married in a few weeks. I know that you aren't ready for marriage, you're only nineteen, and that's young in our world, too. But he wants you to know that you are always welcome to move in here, or even if you just need to crash someplace for a night or two. You are a part of our family now, Emily, and we'll always be here for you._

I swallowed hard as I read it. I'd known Derek Stanton for roughly twenty-four hours, and he was offering to let me move in. Actually, it was sort of like he was inadvertently _asking_ me to move in. And I would be lying if I said that a part of me didn't jump at it. But that was my hopeless romantic side, saying that it was like magic to find my soul mate, and that I should go ahead and jump into our lives together since we were going to be forever anyway. But the rational part of me told me to take it down a notch. I was nineteen, yes. I was old enough to move out of my mother's house and start my life. But Derek was right – marriage was pretty much out of the question right now, and it hadn't even crossed my mind. I couldn't imagine jumping from barely knowing one another or not knowing each other at all to getting married. I had thought, initially, that it would be a thing where he and I would date first. And by what was written on the board, Derek had seemed to think that it would be the best call for both of us. The girly, whiny part of me said that maybe it was because he wasn't so sure that he liked me all that much, but the confident part of me said that he was thinking about me and my needs. And maybe, just maybe, he needed a little bit of non-marriage time, too.

"I…." I struggled to think of something to say. Derek gently took the board from my hands. He set it very carefully on the coffee table (glass, like the rest of the house) in front of us and turned to me on the couch. I had forced myself to keep both of my feet on the ground because I didn't want to put my shoes on the couch or even kick them off, but all I wanted to do was curl into Derek's side. He was promised comfort, even though a part of me said that this was so insane that I should've been dreaming.

But it's hard not to believe. Especially with the proof right in front of me.

**If you hadn't noticed, I skipped a lot of dialogue when it came to explaining the rules and history of the Aces to Emily. Assuming that all of you have read all three books (the fourth comes out on December 18****th****, if you didn't already know) then you are well aware of the workings of the Ace world and I didn't want to linger on those things for too long. Just assume that Emily has a pretty wide knowledge on Aces by this time.**

**What did you guys think about this chapter? Leave me your thoughts in the review box below!**

**Thank you for taking the time to read this. It really means a lot to me! It's because of you guys that I continue to write! Peace (:**


	7. Mother Knows Best

**Complete Chocoholic – Thank you so much! I'm glad that the transition from not knowing anything to knowing relatively everything worked. I was honestly a little worried that some people would be bothered that I didn't dig deeper into the history of Aces. Thanks for the faithful review! (:**

**BreeTico – Thanks! The Stantons are pretty awesome. You'll learn a lot about his siblings in the upcoming chapter. They all sort of have different personalities, so arguments are bound to ensue. (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_7: Mother Knows Best_

Derek's entire family looked alike. I mean, I didn't think it was really that possible, but apparently it was. Only the ones that had married into the family looked different. They all had dark hair in varying shades of brown or black, and the majority of them either had brown or green eyes. They were all fairly tall, the guys built and strong-looking and the girls lanky and willowy. All of the men were handsome. Even now, I could see that Derek's grandpa Barry had been a looker back in his day. I still marveled over it as I sat down at the table.

The family was so big that only the ones that were Derek's parents' ages and older could sit at the dining room table. The rest of us, including Derek's siblings, had to sit at card tables that had been set up in the living room, the coffee table pushed to the side. There were a handful of people that sat outside on a covered patio where an outdoor kitchen had been built next to a small rectangular pool with a diving board on one end. I could tell that the wind was blowing – we were in the windy city, after all – but it looked peaceful out there.

Derek and I had opted to sit inside. I figured that was where I would feel more comfortable, since the outside was mainly cousins and aunts and uncles. A few of them were in the house with us, but the dining room was run by Derek's parents and grandparents. All that really mattered, I guess, was that Derek was close by to field any questions coming my way. Derek seemed to be answering the majority of questions directed at me, which I was sort of embarrassed of (because I _could_ answer them myself) but I was also thankful for. I was nervous enough as it was, so it was nice that he just stepped in without a word and took care of me.

Derek and I ended up at a table with his two younger siblings, since my significant was very literally the middle child out of five. Jack and Madison were nineteen and fifteen, respectively. Derek was twenty-one, only two years older than me (though I had the feeling my mom would still be on guard over the age gap.) His older brother Zach was twenty-two, and his sister Carissa was a little over the regular imprint age at twenty-five. Even though Derek wasn't the oldest, he was the first to imprint in the Stanton family since the imprints started coming back. I was honestly a little scared that Zach and Carissa would've been mad that they didn't imprint before their brother, but they both seemed pleased that we had found each other. Either way, I felt a little better sitting with Jack and Madison, who looked a little awestruck over the entire thing and definitely a little less intimidating.

The whiteboard sat next to my plate on the table. Derek had laid it there before we sat down, and it had been there ever since. He was the only one that spoke to me, and it was mostly through his smiles and the way he looked at me. When he did speak, I assumed that he was just mouthing the words because Jack and Madison didn't look up from their meals whenever he went to get my attention. I picked through my lunch even though I was starving since I didn't eat any breakfast. I was pretty sure that it was just my nerves being strung out and twisted around. Derek's family was warm and welcoming and very kind, and they hadn't looked at me like I wasn't perfect for him like he said I was. They had just given me sad smiles, like they were sorry I had to deal with my deafness, but didn't think anything less of me for it. And I found that I really did like them, even though they made me nervous.

I finished my food before Derek did. He looked at me as if he was asking permission to eat the rest of mine, and I pushed my plate over to him. A huge smile crossed his face as he picked up my plate and set it on top of his. Madison and Jack cackled in laughter. Jack took the board and wrote to me, in a sloppy writing so slanted it was hard to read, that Derek was _the_ one expected to eat the most and was often teased and told to get in the back of the line to get food since he was bound to clear out a few dishes. I laughed, and it was apparently loud because the people sitting at the neighboring tables paused to look at me, smiles on their faces.

When Derek finished my plate, he stood up and took both of ours in one hand, reaching for my hand before stepping away towards the kitchen. Obviously, he thought that I could handle a few moments with his family alone. It was scary but comforting at the same time. The moment Derek was out of the room, though, Jack and Madison looked up from their plates and looked slyly at each other before settling on me. Madison lunged for the whiteboard, stealing it away from Jack. She picked up the cloth napkin (yes, cloth. I nearly had an aneurysm when I saw it. What happened to paper napkins?) that was spread across her lap and deftly wiped off Jack's message to me.

Madison was the baby of the family, and not just of Derek's immediate family but his _entire_ family. It seemed like his dad was one of the youngest, which meant that he and his wife, Victoria, were the last to imprint in their family before their special rite, as they had called it, had faded away. And she sort of looked like the baby of the family. Instead of the black that I had already associated with the majority of the Stantons, Madison's frizzy ringlets were dark brown in color, almost like dark chocolate. She was pretty already, but she would be absolutely beautiful when she was older and of imprint age. And I could already tell that she was slightly spoiled, a princess in the household. As she wrote, I was aware of the fact that she had her tongue sticking out slightly, as if she was focusing extremely hard on whatever she was writing down.

After a minute – Jack had tried to tease her by reading over her shoulder and, when that failed, had resorted to trying to wipe away parts of letters – she turned the board over to me. Ignoring Jack who was, in all honesty, a little immature for our age group, I picked up the board to read it. Madison's handwriting was bubbly, like her peppy princess personality had bled into the letters themselves.

_I want to know what it felt like. The actual imprint and all that attraction and stuff. Was it romantic?_ I stared down at the note, wondering why it had taken her so long to write it. But of course, in the corners of the board were black flowers and hearts, as if she thought that it would help to take the time to draw a few little doodles.

I cleared my throat and leaned back in my seat, trying to think of what to say. Didn't she already know what it felt like? She could have just asked her parents, or any of her aunts and uncles. They had all felt exactly what I had felt. So why was I so special? Besides, Derek had already recounted our brief story (apparently, imprinting over a five dollar bill and a three dollar package of guitar picks was absolutely hilarious) so why did she need to hear it again? But I guess you could just chalk it up to the fact that she was dying to know. She had grown up thinking that the imprints might be extinct by time she reached the right age, but she had hoped that she would imprint anyway. It was, as Robert had told me, the very meaning of being an Ace. Without imprinting there was no ascension. Without ascensions, there were no abilities. And without abilities, Aces ceased to exist.

I tried to gather up the story in my mind and make it a little less cheesy for her. She was really depending on this story, obviously, and I didn't want to disappoint her. But I was saved from having to answer her when Derek returned from the kitchen, holding another water bottle for me. He twisted the cap off, and though it barely took any muscle, I captured the moment in my mind and rewound the tiny flex of muscle that he gave to open it. Ridiculous, boy-crazy, but _totally_ worth it. Was that a cocked eyebrow he gave me? Don't tell me he could read my mind _already_. He'd said it would be another few days or so.

I accepted the water and made a tradeoff. He got the board, I got the bottle. He read over it and then gave his sister a pointed look before grabbing his napkin off the table and wiping the board clean. He tucked it under his arm and grabbed the marker, shoving it into the front pocket of his jeans. He said something to Madison, so fast that I didn't even have time to read it off his lips, but it was punctuated by a smile so it couldn't have been that bad. Still, his little sister blushed, dropping her gaze to the table top in front of her.

Derek reached out to me and I carefully placed my hand in his. Standing up, I left my napkin on the table and grabbed my water bottle. As I turned to him, I realized that he hadn't moved at all and I had nearly run into his chest. He was teasing me, knowing that his close proximity made my heart thump like I'd just finished running a marathon. His smile was slow, the corner of his lips twitching up. I caught my breath in my chest, aware of the fact that I was nearly pressed against him. How could I have not noticed that before? Was I just getting so used to him that I didn't feel it when I was thinking about something else?

His eyes held mine for a minute as I counted the golden flecks in them. Finally, he released my gaze and turned to lead me out of the room. I managed to catch a look at the others still sitting at their card tables. Jack and Madison looked amused, as did Carissa and Zach. The latter group also had a sense of longing as they looked at us, as if they couldn't wait for their moment. I figured that they would get it soon. Like they had said, the imprints were coming back. I didn't really know the semantics of it all – something about a rogue clan, a bunch of bad mistakes, and a girl that promised to change everything – but I figured that Derek and I couldn't be the only ones to receive this gift.

Derek pulled me into the hall. I figured that he just wanted to say something to me without having his family overhear (or, technically, read over my shoulder) but that wasn't what he was going for. Instead, he cornered me in the small alcove there. His hands rested on my arms, and I got the sudden feeling that he was doing this to gauge my reaction. He was being so forward because he wanted to see what I would do. I couldn't hide the fact that my heart was beating a million times a minute, and I could tell that he knew it by the way he smiled, his eyes full of longing. My breath caught in my chest, my eyes locked on his. I was aware of his body nearly pressed completely against mine, and I was thinking about it so hard that I didn't even notice he was talking to me until I felt his mind just barely touch mine. He was _probing_ for answers.

With a smirk, I slammed a steel door that I'd imagined in my head down. He took a slight step back, surprise and admiration clearly reflected in his eyes. With boldness I didn't even know I possessed, I easily pulled the dry erase marker from his front pocket and held it up between us. "You know I can't understand a word you're saying." I said to him. I couldn't tell if my voice was shaky or not, but I knew that it was low, whispered only between us. I wondered if it had a gravelly, sultry sound to it. Girls' voices can change too, and I wondered if mine was still the high-pitched squeak it was when I was a kid.

Derek nearly went cross-eyed as he looked at the marker between us. Finally, he reached up and pushed my hand and the marker down. His eyes met mine. I focused on them for a second before allowing myself to look down at his lips. The eyes were my favorite on any person, but I looked at lips enough to know that even lips can be pretty in their own way. Derek's were nice, with a Cupid's bow at the top that was barely noticeable and a slightly plumper bottom lip than his top. They looked smooth, too. I wanted to just touch a finger to them, but that would definitely be weird, even if he was my significant.

"You drive me crazy," he said to me. I ran over the movements of his mouth in my mind, trying to make sure that really was what he said. I could feel a blush crawling up my neck, staining my cheeks. It was accompanied by a fluttering like a million butterflies in my stomach. For once in my life, I couldn't think of anything remotely snarky to say in return. Instead, I just gave him a slightly dazed smile. His grin back was so bright it rivaled the sun.

I lowered my gaze to take a breath and noticed a clock hanging in the hallway. It was just barely past one in the afternoon. I didn't have to be at work until four, but Xavier usually worked the evening shift since he took classes at the crack of dawn. He worked full-time, which meant that he would have had to be there at twelve. He was bound to be wondering where I was, and I knew that if _he_ knew that I was hanging out with Derek, he would be sort of offended. I needed to get to work and try to smooth things over.

Derek must have sensed my sudden change in emotion because he took a step back and gave me a look that said he'd been worried that he'd offended me. I shook my head, aware of the fact that he was trying to press into my mind to see what was bothering me. This time, I didn't slam the door in his face and allowed him to get closer to me. After a moment that sort of felt like he was sifting through my thoughts, I decided to push one to him. I wasn't sure if I was able to do that, but it was worth the shot. Focusing all my energy on him, I pushed an image of Xavier and my mother at the music shop towards Derek.

His eyes grew a little bit as he looked at me and I could tell that he was seeing what I was sending him. Apparently it was possible and I'd managed to do it. I figured that it was just another one of those things that significants could do with each other. He'd told me about memory transfers, reading each other's minds, and even contacting each other over distances with the ability to look through the other's eyes. But Derek looked like I'd just completed some feat. "I'm so proud of you for being able to do that. It's only the second day." He said. The second day? I felt like it had been so much longer.

"So that's good?" I asked, relieved that I wasn't some freak. Well, more of a freak than I already was.

"It's great, Emily. But what are you trying to tell me with your friend?" He had only taken a small step back from me, so we were still enclosed together in the tiny alcove. My back was pressed against the wall and I could feel the waxy fake leaves of the floral arrangement tickling my neck.

"I've got to get to work. I need to… well, he's not too happy about you." I admitted to him. And Xavier hadn't been. He wasn't pleased with the fact that I was hanging out with Derek. He'd never said it in so many words, but over the years I'd become an expert in body language, and even if he kept his eyes guarded, the hunch of his shoulders, the puff of his chest, or the curling of his fists spoke a thousand words.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Derek asked. He looked a little horrified over the fact that it was even possible. I could feel that awkward blush wash over me. Derek and I had known each other for a couple days, but it felt like I knew him forever. It was like there hadn't been any other crushes or love interests before him. He was it. But there _had_ been others, even if they were few and far between. And I'd be lying to myself if I hadn't thought at some point that Xavier could have been my perfect boyfriend. Apparently, I took too long to answer because Derek took a step back. He didn't look mad; he just looked kind of shocked. His hands left my arms and I was immediately filled with the coldness that came when he wasn't around.

"No," I told him, aware of the fact that my hesitation caught in my throat. I had discussed this with Xavier only yesterday and he'd obviously been a little upset when I'd told him that we'd never been anything more than friends. I decided to try for the total truth and said, "I mean, I've kissed him in the past but he's… he's my best friend."

Derek's eyes searched mine, as if he thought there was a possibility that I was lying, but I could already see in them that he completely believed me. He was an open book. I gave a little smile at the thought. With him, I didn't have to analyze where his eyes were focused or the way he stood. I just had to look at him and I _knew_. And apparently, he knew me, too. I wasn't lying to him. I wasn't sure that I could lie to him. "Okay," he sighed after a moment of deliberation. "Alright, let's go." He looped an arm around my waist and led me back into the living room to say our goodbyes.

We headed out to the garage after bidding his family adieu. As we stepped in, Derek motioned to a corkboard on the wall. It was covered in keys. "Take your pick," he said jokingly, moving his hand under the board as if he was one of those women on game shows, presenting the prize to me. I looked at him just to see if he was joking or not. He was amused, but I could tell that he wasn't joking, not in the least. He wanted me to pick a key to choose out the car that we'd be taking to the music shop, where I suspected my mom and Xavier would be waiting for me.

I bit down on my lip and turned to survey the cars behind me. They were all fancy, most of them little sedans, but there was a coupe in the back corner and a sleek truck behind it. Derek's bike was parked in its little space, and there was the car that he had picked me up in that morning. The most noticeable car was one that was charcoal gray and had hot pink accents. I could imagine that it belonged to Carissa. I had liked her well enough, but she seemed like one of those girls that truly reveled in money. Or maybe it was just the diamonds that were snaked across her wrist and set in gold.

I turned to the corkboard, running my finger along the bottom. Derek hovered right next to me, waiting. Finally, I reached up and picked out the key in the very middle of the corkboard, handing it over to him. He grinned like he had won an award, turning me around and clicking the keyless remote. Down the way, a sleek sports car's headlights lit up. I swallowed. Of course, I picked out the most obvious car in the entire garage.

# # #

Derek rolled into the parking lot right in front of the shop. I could see through the windows into my desk. Xavier was perched on the edge of the counter even though my mother had jokingly told him a million times not to sit on it. Even when I wasn't there, he refused to sit in the chair that was dubbed as mine and mine only. I could feel the purr of the engine shut off and Derek went to open his door. He'd told me that his dad owned a car with those doors that reminded me of butterfly wings – they drifted up instead of opening to the side. Luckily, this car was not one of those. That would only make my grand entrance worse.

I just barely swallowed the cry for him to stay in the car. If he wanted to be all chivalrous and come open my door for me, which he was doing right that moment, then who was I to stop him? Well, I guess I was his significant, and it was obvious that he would do anything for me, but I wasn't going to make him feel like I didn't want to be seen with him. Even if it was sort of true. I mean, I didn't want Xavier to see me with him, because then it was going to start another fight between us, and I didn't know if I'd be able to handle that. I was pretty sure my psyche was remarkably unstable at the moment.

Derek opened my door as I unbuckled my seatbelt. I'd sat there for about a minute and just stared forward and the front windshield, wondering if Xavier could see in to me. I doubted it because the windows were darkly tinted. It wasn't like it mattered anyway; he would see me in a few seconds. But still.

Derek offered me his hand like a gentleman. Giving him a short glare to tell him that I didn't need to be treated like a spoiled damsel in distress, I stepped out of the car myself, pulling on the handle above my head. My significant gave me one of his dazzling smiles (really, it should be patented – no other guy should be able to give that level of dazzle with his teeth) and closed the door behind me.

"What are you doing?" I hissed to him as we stepped up onto the sidewalk. I peeked inside the shop. Xavier sat on the counter, open-mouthed. One of his shoes was untied. About that time, I saw my mother come to the doorway and I knew in an instant that she would recognize Derek. I knew that the moment I walked in that room, she would take me back to her office where she would thoroughly question me. I had imagined that she would have waited until we got back home, but showing up with the same guy that was over at the house last night (or early this morning) in a car that looked like it belonged to James Bond was a completely different story.

"Walking you to the door," he answered, turning his body to face me. I paused in the middle of the sidewalk, barely aware of all of the people bustling around us. It was sort of like we were the only ones here. Or maybe not the only ones, but we were in a protective bubble that blocked out the rest of the world. I wondered if he knew that he did that to me. I wondered if I did that to him.

Derek's eyes darted inside the music shop for a quick moment before settling on me. "I have a favor to ask from you." I gave a very unladylike snort, but I motioned for him to ask anyway. "I've called in a favor with a friend to help with something. He should be coming in early tomorrow morning, and he'll spend the night tomorrow night before leaving early the next morning. I wanted to see if you would come meet him."

"You sure are burning through your favors pretty quickly," I told him offhandedly. Deep down inside, though, I was wondering who this mysterious friend could be. Of course I wanted to meet him. Curiosity killed the cat, and if I wasn't careful it was going to get me, too.

Derek smiled down at me. "You can even say you're spending the night with Carissa and Madison," he offered. I knew he wanted me around. I wanted me around him, too. And the guy did just ask me (sort of) to move in with him.

"Carissa is six years older than me and Madison is four years younger," I replied, "my mom probably won't think that they're my new besties."

"Would you rather tell her you were spending the night with Jack?" He asked, the corners of his lips twitching as he forced himself to keep back a smile.

I rolled my eyes. "I never said I would spend the night with your sisters." I told him, patting him on the chest. "Give me a little time to think about it and field the questions that are going to be coming from my mom and Xavier, okay?"

Derek sighed dramatically; I could tell by the heavy dropping off his shoulders and his breath on my face. It smelled faintly of our lunch. I thought about offering him a piece of gum. He must've been digging around on the surface of my mind because he laughed the moment the thought popped into my head. Reaching out to touch my face, he leaned in close to say a few words to me. "I'll come and see you before you go to sleep tonight. Leave your window open and your light on, and I'll figure out a way onto the roof."

"You scandalous man-child," I replied in a loud whisper. "You could ask to enter my chambers a little more romantically. Haven't you read Romeo and Juliet?" I asked.

"In case you can't remember, that's a tragedy." He reminded me with a little goading. "I'll see you tonight, fair Juliet." His lips barely moved so I struggled to make out the words, but they were obvious to me once I put them together. He put a hand on the side of my neck and leaned forward, pressing his lips to my temple for just a second before turning and leaving me on the sidewalk. Just to make sure that I could actually move, I stepped forward and took a hold of the handle, pausing to look back at him. I couldn't see him through the windshield, but in my mind I could see him give me a light salute. These mind games were easier than I would have imagined.

Derek's expensive car pulled out of its parking space and headed down the street. I watched as he paused at the stop sign, the red taillights bright, the blinker flashing as he turned and disappeared from view. Every single time, I wanted to chase him down. And every single time, I had to restrain myself.

With a heavy sigh, I turned and opened the door to the shop. Within seconds, Xavier was practically up in my face. I let the door close behind me and ignored my best friend as he hovered over my shoulder like a fly over honey. I slipped around the back of the desk without looking up at my mom, dropping my purse on the floor. The corner of the whiteboard stuck out, and I gave it a slight kick, hoping to hide it a little better. My mom would be adamant that a relationship couldn't be built solely on lip-reading and messages to one another. I didn't know if she was going to go as far as to forbid me from seeing him (that would be melodramatic, even for her) but I didn't want to chance it.

I turned to grab my chair and instead caught my mother's eye. She looked a little pensive, like she was looking at me and thinking really hard about something. But she also looked slightly ecstatic with a healthy dose of cautious worry. I knew that all of the emotions on her face were a mixed reaction to seeing me on the sidewalk with Derek. She signed, "Come in my office and talk to me."

Like a kid that knew she'd gotten in trouble, I chanced a glance at my best friend. Instead of looking amused that I was being called into the "principal's" office or even a little worried that I was going to get into trouble, he just looked mad. Or maybe it wasn't exactly _mad_, but it was definitely _annoyed_, or maybe even _peeved_. It didn't look like I was going to get any moral support from him, so I stepped by, spinning the chair as I walked by it before slipping past my mother and into her office.

The office wasn't very big. The desk that had once been in her home office when my parents were still married nearly went all the way across the room with a two to three foot space in between it and the wall. The narrow walkway was hindered by a small wastepaper basket. There was a shelf full of hollow squares for her to put stuff in behind her like pictures and potted plants, and it sat on top of a row of scratched up filing cabinets. Her computer sat on the desk, her keyboard and mouse directly in front of it. The venti-sized coffee sat in front of her, and there were papers spread all over the surface of the desk. My mother wasn't the most organized woman around, but she knew where everything in her office was.

I sat down in one of the two slightly uncomfortable seats pressed against the wall across from her desk, struggling to cross my legs in front of me. Mom let the door close as she stepped into the room, and I saw Xavier hovering nearby out of the tiny window that was more like a slit in the door. She slid into her comfortable swiveling computer chair (it was supposed to be good for people with back problems) and turned to face me, both of her hands flat on the desk as her eyes searched mine for information before she started interrogating me.

I knew the move. It was something she always did, especially when I was in trouble. I couldn't be for sure, though, what it meant until she started asking the questions. I think it was supposed to be some way to soften me up, like a good-cop/bad-cop thing going on without the tag team. I folded my hands in front of me and rested them on my knees, trying my best to appear relaxed and completely unbothered by her scrutiny.

Finally, she leaned back in her seat and started to sign to me. She didn't open her mouth to add unheard words to it, so I assumed that she thought that this was important enough that Xavier shouldn't be able to hear. And I was pretty sure that he was listening in, sitting at the base of the door and waiting for information.

"Who is that boy, Emily?" She asked me, her hands moving swiftly in front of her.

"He's my friend," I replied with my hand motions, keeping my mouth shut. I glanced out the window to see if Xavier was watching me and was relieved to find that he wasn't. Focusing my gaze on my mother, I decided that it was best if I told her as much of the truth as I could without seeming suspicious. It was going to be hard, but she was my mom and she knew almost everything about me. I sometimes believed that she knew me better than I knew myself. She would know if I was doing a bad job at my lying. So I decided on half-truths, which I was almost sure that I would be able to get by with. Instead of telling her that he was my soul mate, my imprinted significant, I signed, "I really like him."

Mom sighed and scooted forward in her desk. "How much do you like him? I've only seen him once before, and even though he was very kind, I want you to be careful with him. He seems older."

"He is," I signed in reply. "But he is very nice, mom. He's mature, and he understands me."

"Does he really now?" Her eyes were hard as her hands made the movements. She was worried about me. "Sometimes older boys like to take advantage of girls younger and more naïve than them."

"Are you calling me stupid?" I signed, but the words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. I was pretty sure that I'd said it in an accusing tone, too. Clearing my throat, and I quickly signed, "I'm not. He really is nice to me. He understands that I can't hear him, mom, and he still hangs around."

Mom sighed, looking away from me for a moment as if she was trying to collect her thoughts. "Emily, be careful with him. Don't just follow your heart blindly. Use your head, too."

"I am. He wants nothing but to be there for me. Mom, you should see his eyes. They're so expressive. It's like I can read every emotion in them. He's not a very good liar."

She dropped her hands on her desk, picking up a pen. For a moment she scribbled down something on a piece of paper, and I had the feeling that she was just stalling, trying to think of something to say. My mom had been in love, once. Sometimes I wondered if she still was in a way. She and my dad had been high school sweethearts. Everyone had believed that they were perfect for each other. They had stuck together for years, and they'd been happy. It really did make me second guess myself. If I was so happy with Derek now, what was it going to be like in thirty years? If I allowed myself to fall for Derek and our relationship turned south just like my parents' did, where did that leave me?

But then again, I'd met his family. Even his grandparents seemed like they were so in love, more than my parents had been when I was a kid. I'd never seen anybody be like that before. It was sort of like they were the embodiment of the imprint between me and Derek. Something magical, something strong, something _lasting_. I realized, in that moment, that even though my mom's perfect love hadn't turned out to be so perfect it didn't mean that mine couldn't. The only problem was going to be getting my mom to understand that. Derek was supposed to be perfect for me in every conceivable way. But she wouldn't cave that easily. She wouldn't let me, her little girl that so desperately needed her mother's help after she lost her hearing, to handle something like this on my own. I had the feeling that my mom had sort of depended on me to stick around forever. She'd thought that my dad would do that job, but he was gone now. It was just me and her, and a part of me wondered if she would ever be okay with me stepping farther away from her and closer to someone else.

After a minute of silence, she looked up at me and signed. "I want to meet him. To _really_ meet him," she emphasized the words by making her eyes larger, conveying how important this was to me. "Where did you meet him, anyway?"

"Here, at the shop." I replied out loud. She looked away for a moment, and I added, "Mom, I really do like him. I mean, he gives me butterflies. He makes me smile. He can joke with me and I can joke with him. It's like he truly does understand me. It's like I've known him… _forever_. I really, _really_ like him, mom." I said the words quietly, hoping that they would get through to her. I wasn't her little girl anymore. I was a nineteen-year-old with an imprinted soul mate and a future ahead of her. I couldn't be held back anymore, she'd have to see that.

Mom sighed, and when she looked up at me, I thought that there was a glistening of tears in her eyes. I figured that they were because all of this felt so final. Even though my mom didn't know how final it truly was, it was almost like it was tangible. I could _feel_ it, and I was pretty sure that she could, too. My mother was no dimwit. She could figure things out on her own. She could look at me and see the things that I couldn't.

I wondered what she saw there that made her gave me a slightly sad, but proud, smile.

**What do you guys think? AwesomeSauce220, here is the first brief conversation Emily's had with her mother. (;**

**You guys know what to do by now. Leave me a quick review and I will be grateful! Thank you for reading! Peace (:**


	8. Language Lesson

**BreeTico – I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with Derek's friend. You've already met him. (;**

**AwesomeSauce220 – Don't worry about it; thank **_**you**_** for continuing to read and review! I wish you the best of luck with moving (it seems like everyone's moving, lately.) I've never moved out of state so I can't imagine the harried rush it must cause.**

**Complete Chocoholic – If you liked those romantic bits, you'll be pleased with the upcoming chapters. I just recently finished writing chapter ten (yes, I'm that far ahead on my chapters! Squee!) which is **_**full**_** of romantical stuff!**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_8: Language Lesson_

Late last night, my Romeo dropped by my house and, true to his word, found a way onto my roof. He said it was because he was able to romantically climb the lattice up to the roof of the garage, where he made his merry way to my window. Clearly, he thought that I would be so dazzled by the great lengths that he'd gone through to get to me. In reality, we didn't have a lattice. He'd brought a six foot ladder in the back of the truck that I'd seen in his garage and had leaned it up against the house.

Still, it was appreciated since after my slightly awkward conversation about my feelings with my mother, the cold-shoulder I received from my best friend, and my shift at work, I was feeling the pain of the withdrawals. They hadn't been all that bad when he'd come to my window, but I knew that if he hadn't come to see me before I went to bed I'd feel like I'd been shot a few hundred times by morning. He didn't want to come in my window since he was worried that my mom would hear him even after I told him that the entire second floor was mine. Instead, he had just leaned against the window frame as we shared a few whispered words. After a good half hour, he climbed back down his oh-so-romantic ladder and disappeared into the night, letting me know that he would be later than usual to pick me up in the morning.

Now, I was stepping up The Yellow Brick Road in front of Derek's house, my eyes trained on the ground. The bricks were a little bumpy and uneven, and I was scared to death of tripping and landing right on my face. Not only would it be embarrassing, it would probably hurt. But mostly, I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Derek. I knew that I was going to do something stupid in front of him eventually, but I would rather it be later than sooner.

We neared the front door, which Derek opened and stepped aside so I could go in first. I just barely stepped over the threshold, wondering if all the people that were there the day before were there, but it seemed quiet. Well, I mean, as quiet as I can assume something is when I'm deaf. Derek came in after me, his hand resting, just barely, on my lower back. He took a step forward, drawing me with him.

I could smell food cooking in the kitchen. Victoria must have been in there making lunch. My stomach rumbled – I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast. I had slept in late since I'd stayed up talking to Derek and my mom hadn't come in after she got dressed to wake me up. She'd left a note on the counter saying that she had a few errands to run and when she got back we could go to the shop. I just added onto her note, saying that I had plans with a few friends (Derek had talked me into using his sisters as buffers) and that I would be there for my shift at the store. I hadn't gotten any text messages from her yet so I guessed that she hadn't gotten home from her errands. I couldn't help but wonder what she was doing and why I felt like she was up to something.

With Derek still leading me, we stepped into the kitchen. All of his brothers and sisters were gathered at the table. Sitting at the head of it was a man that I didn't really recognize. He looked a lot like Victoria, though. They shared the same dark brown hair color and the same nice-to-meet-you smile. All eyes were on the man I hadn't met, but they all swiveled to me and Derek when the man looked up with a huge grin plastered across his face.

I forced a slight smile on, a little uncomfortable. With all of the people that had been at Derek's house the day before, I'd imagined that there wasn't anybody that I hadn't already met. But my significant had told me that their families were generally large. Most of them had more than one kid, and Derek's parents were a little more than average with five children. I guess there _was_ a possibility that he had more uncles than I'd met.

I could feel the rumble in Derek's chest that let me know he was speaking. I turned my head to look up at him, trying to catch sight of his lips. His arm was still draped around my back, holding me close. I hadn't been aware that I was holding onto his fingers until he went to move. Releasing them, I could feel a blush crawl up and color my cheeks. Derek's family hadn't been very bothered by the fact that he and I were always pressed together. In fact, it seemed like they encouraged it. Apparently, PDA wasn't looked down upon in their family. They still had rules, of course, like the fact that imprinted couples were supposed to be married before they did anything that was procreative, or that the woman went and lived with the man and didn't really see her side of the family very often. But they seemed to like PDA in a way that was slightly creepy and unnerving. I figured that it was because imprints and significants harbored on skin-to-skin touch.

The man that I hadn't met nodded to me. I started to give him a smile even though I didn't know him. I imagined that Derek had told him who I was and that he was waiting for me to look at him so he could tell me his name. But when I glanced up at my significant, he wasn't looking at me at all. There was a slight smile that just barely touched the corner of his lips, and I was suddenly sure that he was up to something. I narrowed my eyes at him, about to accuse him of keeping secrets, when the man started signing to me.

My words died in my throat. I hadn't expected anyone in Derek's family to be able to sign. At least, those that were around yesterday didn't exhibit any sign language skills. I didn't think that they would have any reason to. They obviously weren't used to a deaf person hanging around, that was evident by the way they would start speaking to me and then suddenly cut off, remembering that I couldn't hear a word that they were saying. I'd told them that I was pretty skilled on reading lips, but they still stuttered to a stop and gave me an apologetic look like they'd personally offended me.

"Hello, Emily. It's nice to meet you. My name is Max Jacobson." The man, Mr. Jacobson, signed like a master. He was good at it, his hands fast and smooth, the movements flowing together instead of stuttered, like he was trying to remember the next word. He had skill that said he'd been signing for a few years if not longer.

I nodded and decided to sign back. It was probably strange of me, but whenever I met someone that could sign I liked to test their limits. There are different levels of being able to read or sign, just like in any language. There are some people that can't spell or are horrible with grammar, and then there are people that correct other's sentences like they are the editors-in-chief to the entire world. In sign language, it was how easy it was to move from one word to the other and how long it took to translate the movements into words. "Nice to meet you. Are you deaf?"

Derek's fingers squeezed my side as Mr. Jacobson smiled at me. "No. I'm an Ace. Derek's mother, Victoria, is my sister. When she imprinted with Robert she moved here to Chicago, but the rest of my family is in Tennessee." He paused, as if making sure that I got all of that before continuing. "I am what is called a Novice. My ability means that I learn things at a fast rate and can teach anything to family members within seconds. Take my sign language, for example. Derek called me the day you two imprinted and I got to work learning the language. I've come here to teach it to Derek. It should only take a few seconds, but it's always nice to visit my sister." Mr. Jacobson smiled at me broadly. I decided that I liked him.

Instead of signing in return, I said, "You can teach him _anything_?"

Mr. Jacobson signed back. "As long as I know it, yes. And I can teach you what I know, too." He gave a slight wink, and I found myself laughing. There was something about him that was just so charming, even though he was about my mother's age.

"Well, how does it work?" I asked him, intrigued. Derek had told me that there were such things as family rivals. He'd mentioned that there were families that were fairly close and families that hated each other. Usually, the rival clan lived in the same area as another. The Stantons, for example, were the rivals of another clan in Chicago. He hadn't told me their last name, but I assumed that he was just trying to keep me safe by keeping me in the dark. As of right now, the fact that they had a rival clan wasn't really that important to me. Not at the moment. There were just so many different things going on that deserved my focus first.

Like the fact that Derek's uncle, a man from another clan, was here to help the both of us. I understood why he was here. He was going to help us by teaching Derek sign language. That was why he had started learning it after Derek called him, and that was the reason why he flew out here. Well, that and the fact that he probably wanted to see his sister again.

Mr. Jacobson smiled at me, signing in reply. "I assume that you know that you and Derek can share your thoughts and feelings. I can push my way into your head and deposit information there. Granted, it's not as nice as having your significant milling around in your brain, but you get the information you need. You do not technically know it until you use it. In that case your body teaches it to you as you go along. For instance, I can teach you basic karate or how to bake a soufflé, but until you try it you will not remember the information."

"And you're going to teach sign language to Derek?" I asked. I chanced a glance at his family. They had the same look of wonder as most people did when they saw someone using sign language. It was normal, I guess, to be awestruck by the fact that someone can speak another language or read braille or anything that's _different_ than what they already know. As people, we're intrigued and fearful of the unknown. It's a common factor for most of us.

Mr. Jacobson just nodded and turned away from me and my significant, taking the moment to say something to his sister. It was funny, how I had already gotten used to calling Derek mine. According to our imprint we were together forever. I was his and he was mine, and it was something that I'd just sort of _accepted_. I couldn't help but wonder if it was because my rational side had easily been satisfied with the stories and the proof, or if it was my romantic side that had decided to just go for it, or if it was a combination of the two. At the very least, I hadn't told Derek that in my mind he belonged to me and only me. For Christ's sake, I hadn't even kissed him. He hadn't even kissed me. I knew that I'd lingered on the thought more than once, and there was that one time that I thought he was thinking about it, but it hadn't happened. Maybe he was just following all of this because he believed that it needed to be done. An imprint was an imprint, and there wasn't any way to break it. He needed me to survive, but maybe that was the only reason he had me hanging around. Why he was going out on a limb and bringing his uncle to Chicago to teach him a language that I would understand.

Almost subconsciously I took a slight step to the side, sliding out from under Derek's arm. The movement was small and would have, under other circumstances, been practically unnoticeable. But here in the kitchen with Derek leaning on me ever so slightly and his siblings focusing on us like we were displays at a museum, it was like I'd just announced something extremely personal and embarrassing. It was sort of like the entire room froze. I was pretty sure that even the air conditioning shut off right that moment. It was either that or I was suddenly burning up.

Derek reached out and grabbed my wrist. His hold wasn't tight, but it made me stop right in my tracks. Before I could pull down and lock the door to my mind, I could feel him pushing past my feeble barriers, looking for answers. I swallowed hard as he wrapped his arm around me almost defensively. I felt his voice in his chest as he said something short to his family and lead me into the hall. We passed the alcove that he had cornered me in the day before and continued on, heading towards a hall full of doors. There were three on either side. One of the middle doors didn't have anything on it, but the rest of them had _something_ on them. Each door had a whiteboard on them – the two doors on one side had pink trays while the other three doors on the other side had black trays.

Each one of them had something different on them, but I focused only on the one that Derek led me to. The whiteboard attached to the door had DEREK written across the middle of it. The tray was filled with black markers and guitar picks. Derek twisted the knob and motioned for me to step into the room. I did as I was told. The inside was just barely a mess. The bed was black and gray pinstriped, completely messed up with the sheets tangled and the pillows thrown over it. It was a pretty large bed, though. I had never had a bed that was bigger than the twin-sized one that was still in my bedroom. Looking over the room, the walls were painted steel gray and covered with posters of rock bands. The closet had double doors that pulled open to reveal the contents, mostly made of black, gray, and navy fabric. All of the furniture was made of dark cherry wood, from the bedframe with its four posters and the desk that was covered in what looked to be sheet music. A bookcase was stuffed with hardcover horror novels, and there were three guitars displayed on stands, a fourth that was so small it looked like it belonged to a child hanging above his bed.

I turned to look at Derek. He closed the door behind him. He shook his head and ran a hand over his face, like he was confused and struggling against something at the same time. He looked… frustrated. A part of me wondered what I'd done to make him do that. He'd been so easygoing every time I saw him and he only ever seemed stressed out when I was around. He looked up suddenly, and I was sure that he was still looking through my mind, sorting through whatever surface thoughts were there. It was the third day of our imprint, after all, and we were supposed to be able to talk to each other soon if not already. I could already tell the difference between today and yesterday in terms of reading each other.

I pressed my mind up against his, determined to find out what was bothering him. I could get the flash of pictures and a few words strung together. But the picture was of me. It was _me_ that was bothering him. When the realization hit me, Derek stalked forward and grabbed a hold of my upper arms, drawing me into him. I let out a slightly startled cry into his chest as his arms wrapped around me. This was sort of like the time that he caught me when I slipped at the store – which felt like ages ago – but this was much more intimate. It was a _real_ hug. I could feel his breath in my hair as his arms tightened around me like steel vices.

He took only a slight step back, using two fingers to lift my chin so I had to look up at him. His eyes didn't say that he was frustrated. In fact, they said that he was worried about me. "I'm not mad at you." He said his words very carefully and slowly. I imagined that they were warm and low, too. "God, anything but." He let his forehead rest against mine. I closed my eyes and let the feeling of his touch wash over me. I couldn't read his mind like I wished I could. From the way that I'd sort of freaked out about it yesterday, I had figured that I would be more scared of it than excited. But I _wanted_ to be able to read his mind, and the thought of him digging around in mine wasn't as scary as it had been before.

I felt myself take a shaky breath. Derek's hands rested on either side of my neck, his fingers tangled in my hair. He let out a heavy sigh that I felt on my face and took a step back. He brushed my bangs out of my eyes and gave me a small smile. "I wanted to talk to you without having everyone eavesdrop, and I didn't want them to be able to read it on your board." He motioned for me to take a seat on the bed. I eyed it for a moment before sitting on the edge of it. Derek sat next to me, his hand reaching out for mine. I had to look up at him to see what he was saying. "I want you here with me, and not just because I need you to survive as much as you need me. I couldn't really tell what you were thinking in your head, but I knew you were second-guessing the imprint. All I can tell you is to look at my parents. Look at my grandparents. The imprints are chosen for us because they knew that we belonged together. If I had never met you, Emily, I would have never imprinted. You're the perfect one for me. And I like you for who _you_ are, not just because an imprint says that we have to be together. In fact, if we hadn't imprinted I think I would have thought about breaking our no-dating rule. Just for _you_."

I peered into his eyes, knowing that even if his words were false, his eyes would be telling me the truth. But either he was being completely honest with me or he had suddenly learned how to hide his deepest thoughts, because his eyes were telling me the exact same thing he'd said. I took a deep breath, feeling that gentle pull that he gave me. We were magnets, the two of us, just like I had thought when I'd first imprinted with him.

Feeling a little stupid, I gave a slight nod. "Sorry," I said after a moment, "it's just… well, it's sort of crazy. I mean, how is it possible that we are exactly perfect for each other?" I asked him. Without giving him a chance to answer, I leaned forward a little, turning my body to face him. My hands easily rested on his jeaned knee. "For instance, look at me. I'm _deaf_, for Christ's sake. Don't you think it's a little… I don't know, _weird_ that you've been eternally partnered up with someone who can't even hear you?"

"It doesn't bother me," Derek said.

"Well it bothers _me_. You deserve someone who can go to your freaking concerts and actually hear what she's listening to." I told him, my eyes wandering over the dozens of posters taped to his walls. Most of them were dark in color with splotches or blue or red. Plenty of them had skulls and snakes and things that were supposed to be manly. A lot of them looked like they were punks, either with hair that was generally too long for the average male and/or tattoos. They had names that sounded like they were just words thrown together in no particular order. I recognized some of them when they came up on the news or someone mentioned them on my social networking site. Some of them had been up-and-coming when I was in middle school and had come into their prime after I'd become deaf. My eyes scanned the shiny acoustic guitar over Derek's headboard. It looked like he'd signed the bottom curve, as if he was waiting for the day when he was famous.

"Is that what really bothers you?" He asked me, gaining my attention with a hand waved in front of my face. "I don't care if you can't hear the music, Emily. All I care about is that you're there with me. Music is just a… well, I wouldn't be hurting if I got famous because of it, but it's just a hobby for now. The council has laws set for what respectable jobs we're allowed to have, and musician isn't on that list. But with the way things are changing, I might be able to do whatever I want. The Visionary's significant wasn't very big on following in his family's footsteps. All of us that were in that group knew it. And she'd do anything for him. Maybe she'll make sure that rule is changed a little bit." He shrugged and added, "But right now, it looks like I'll eventually end up as a multi-business owner. My family owns the Virtuous car line, after all."

"_Your_ family owns that?" I asked, completely shocked. I knew the Virtuous cars, but I had never thought to dig around and find out who owned them.

"Of course. Don't you get it? _Virtuous_ and _Virtuoso_." He grinned like it was a huge joke and added, "But we also own a bunch of the luxury car dealerships around. A side business, my dad always said that to appease the council."

"So _that's_ where all the money comes from," I mused. I realized a second too late that I'd said it out loud when I'd intended to keep it in my head. I didn't want him to think that I was shallow or something ridiculous, like that I liked him just for his money. I dropped my face, looking down at the wrinkled comforter I was sitting on. Derek's laugh, though, made the whole bed shake.

"Oh, you noticed that?" He asked. "All Aces have money. Or, at least, they used to. Money is what allows us to keep our families safe. It means that we have more houses if we need them and college is a council rule. It costs money to keep us protected." He told me. "But don't worry, I don't get to use my dad's money whenever I feel like it. I use mine from gigs and stuff. It's not as much, of course, but I'm pretty good at saving." He cocked an eyebrow at me, as if he was wondering if I was a big spender or if I was able to keep half of a paycheck in the bank. It was more like I was a money hoarder. I rarely spent my own money unless it was on clothes or food that I needed. Xavier usually refused to let me spend my own cash (he was far from being a money saver) and my mom still fluttered around and acted like I wasn't able to fend for myself. And it didn't hurt that my dad made sure I had money. I was his only kid, after all, and we used to be really close. Sometimes I think he only sends me the allowance that he does hoping that it'll keep me around him, like I would ditch him the moment I could.

I opened my mouth to say something, to say _anything_, to change the subject when there was a knock on the door. At least, I figured it was a knock because Derek's gaze shot from me to the door and he started to stand up. I stayed where I was sitting cross-legged on his comforter. I weaved my fingers together and let them rest in my lap, staring down at them a little awkwardly. This was the first time that I'd ever been secluded in a boy's room. It was sort of sad, kind of, for a girl my age. After a moment, I brushed my hair behind my ear and looked up at Derek. He had the door propped all the way open and was talking to whoever was standing there.

I leaned back a little on the bed and caught sight of Carissa leaning against the doorway. Her eyes shot to me for a second and she gave me a tiny smile, her eyes flicking back to her brother. She was saying something to Derek, but I couldn't tell what it was because he was blocking her. I couldn't tell what he was saying to her either because his back was to me. For a split second, I found myself admiring the way his jeans clung to his narrow hips, the pockets with some design on it. Averting my gaze, I went to stand up. Derek hadn't told me to stay there, so I figured that it couldn't be that bad if I joined him at the door. Besides, even if he had told me to stay perched on the bed I don't know if I would have.

I scrambled up, nearly getting my feet tangled in his sheets. It was a good thing I managed to catch myself on one of the posters that made up the frame of his bed. I looked up at the doorway, aware of the fact that Derek had shifted to stand fully in the doorway. Carissa probably couldn't see around him. I couldn't help but wonder if he did that for my benefit. He knew that I would be embarrassed if she saw me fall flat on my face. Jesus, I was embarrassed that he _knew_ I was about to fall flat on my face. But at least like my knight in shining armor, he stepped in to protect me from the horrors of having his sister think that I was a hopeless klutz.

I brushed off imaginary dirt from my jeans and tried to collect my thoughts. Taking a deep breath, I walked over to Derek and Carissa, laying a hand on his back. He glanced over at me and then turned his gaze back to his sister. Carissa gave me a smile, and this close I could really see the similarities between the two of them. Carissa was all dark, with inky black hair barely a shade lighter than my own and dark brown eyes. She was willowy and tall, just like the majority of the women in the Stanton family. She was also dressed in the latest fashions, with expensive-looking clothes. The diamond bracelet around her wrist glowed just as brightly as it had before, but this time I noticed the matching necklace in the shape of a heart around her neck. Carissa's long fake fingernails touched it briefly, as if she saw me looking at it. I glanced away for a moment, choosing to narrow in on her designer shoes. Was there anything about Carissa that wasn't prim and proper and expensive-looking? Their physical looks might be the same, but Carissa and Derek dressed differently. I mean, Derek's clothes still looked expensive, but he didn't seem to flaunt it as easily as his sister did. Carissa was the only one out of all of them that looked like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine, too. She just made me… _nervous_.

I was almost unaware of the fact that my fingers immediately knotted in Derek's belt loop under the edge of his shirt. I would have been embarrassed if I'd noticed it earlier, and I probably would have yanked away if my fingers weren't wedged between the belt loop and his leather belt. But he didn't seem to mind the contact and I definitely didn't. Instead of focusing on him and Carissa, I thought long and hard on the reasons I was so jumpy around him and his family. I had accepted everything that they had thrown at me, but I was still holding myself back from getting close to him. I would like to pull a Freud and blame my friends and family about it. I didn't want to get close to other people because my parents had proved that love that was supposed to last forever could be broken and my close friends ditched me after I lost my ability to hear. I wanted to say that I was the way I was because I was mentally scarred or something. But I knew that wasn't true. I just didn't want to put my heart on the line, lay it out on the chopping block, and hope that the knife didn't fall on it. I was just being my usual slightly paranoid self.

For some reason, that stupid fortune cookie that I'd gotten just a few days ago came to mind. _The future waits for you to come to it_. I hated those things most of the time. But I guess with all the craziness going on in my life, I'd taken two minutes to memorize the words. The slip it was printed on was still behind the computer monitor. I hadn't even thrown it away. Maybe it was because I knew subconsciously that I would end up leaning on it. I had to take the words to heart. I couldn't just sit around in my chair at the shop and hope that something happened to me to propel my life forward. I needed to walk to it myself. I needed to take a risk and just _do_ something instead of wait around for everything to change.

I never was a big fan of change. But this time I figured that I might actually like it, at least a little.

With a newfound sense of doing something just because I could, I leaned up against Derek. I figured that he might have thought it was a bit weird of me to go from questioning the imprint to clinging to him like a distraught girlfriend, but he didn't even look my way or probe my mind as his arm wrapped around me, his hand curling in to play with the hair that hung down over my shoulder. Carissa watched the move with a calculated eye. She seemed relatively pleased by the way the two of us were clinging together, but she also looked a little sour by it. I could imagine why. She had heard stories her entire life depicting how amazing it was to imprint only to be told that she had to wait until she was old enough. And then she finally reached imprint age and was told that she could only hope that there was a chance that the imprints would return. Now they were returning and she still hadn't gotten hers. I wanted to tell her that I hoped she found her significant soon but I decided to keep my mouth shut. This was only my second day of knowing her, after all.

Derek said something else to her and she turned and started down the hallway. I stood up a little straighter, untangling my fingers from his belt loop as he took a step forward. He kept his fingers wrapped around mine as I followed him down the hall and back to the kitchen. Victoria was still cooking lunch; I could smell the stir-fry. It made my stomach grumble and my mouth water.

Derek walked into the room in front of me. Madison and Jack were still sitting in their same places. Carissa drifted over to her chair right next to Mr. Jacobson, and Zach, who I decided was by far the quietest of the five kids, was bent over what looked to be a textbook. It was getting into early September, so classes had already started up, but he was the only one I ever saw doing homework. Even Xavier, who got up before the crack of dawn to go to his first class starting at seven, never did any homework at the shop. At least, not any homework that I could see. Madison looked thoroughly pleased to see the two of us together. Her eyes seemed to search over us as if she had expected something to have changed, like we would disappear for a few minutes and come back with hair mussed and clothes askew. The implications made me blush.

Victoria turned around with the pan and caught my eye. She gave me a broad smile, clearly pleased by the fact that her son had imprinted and found me, despite the fact that I probably wasn't what she thought he would end up with. She pulled a large bowl down from the pantry and poured the contents of the pan into it. I figured that she called for Madison because suddenly the youngest girl was standing up and gathering bowls and plates to take to the table. Derek nudged me to take a seat and I did, wedging myself between him and Jack.

Jack nudged my shoulder and leered at me with a smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes. All of Victoria and Robert's kids had different personalities. Carissa was very clearly a diva, Zach was the most studious person I'd ever seen, Derek was the rock star in the making, Jack was the clown of the group, and Madison was the hopeless romantic. I wondered how they managed to raise such a diverse group of children as Madison set my bowl in front of me. I looked up and gave her a quiet thank you, which she nodded to before handing a bowl to Derek.

I ate my food, which was absolutely amazing, and tried to focus on the entire table. It looked like Mr. Jacobson, who insisted that I call him Max, was telling stories about Victoria when she was a kid. Madison thought they were hilarious, and Jack kept telling his mother that he was going to lock away that bit of information in the back of his mind for future blackmailing. Carissa smiled politely through it all, laughing here and there while continuously checking her cell phone. Zach ate and flipped through his pages simultaneously, barely looking up from the text. I sort of admired his dedication, but I was really glad that I wasn't like that. School had been a blip on my day from the moment I realized that I was deaf. Homeschool had been easy and relatively lonely. It really wasn't anything to sneeze at. And I couldn't really go to a college unless I wanted to attend special classes for the deaf. I'd just decided not to deal with it.

It was only after we finished our meal that Max decided it was time to do what he had come for. He was going to teach Derek everything. I sat there in my chair, on the edge of my seat, waiting for some giant flash of light or something equally as epic. Derek closed his eyes and gently took a hold of my hand under the table. I stared up at him, waiting for something absolutely magical to happen. But he just closed his eyes and sat there almost completely still, his hand just barely tightening on mine for a moment. After only a few seconds, his eyes opened and he looked down at me. Everyone leaned forward, eager to see what he had learned and if it had worked. Max leaned back in his seat and reached for a crumb of the brownies Victoria had made, waiting for Derek to make his big move.

My significant turned to me, his eyes alight with something that said he was truly excited. He seemed to be focusing on something for a second, and then he signed out to me, "This should be much easier than mouthing the words, huh?" I could barely hold back the squeal of excitement as I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him tight to me. He seemed a little surprised, but his arms went around me easily, his hands resting on my lower back. Over his shoulder, I could see Madison laughing, and Max rolled his eyes when I pulled away to glance at him. Apparently, he thought that Derek could have been a lot more romantic in that moment, and he'd said as much. But it didn't matter anymore.

Derek had gone through great lengths to get his uncle here so he could understand me and I could understand him. Sure, he didn't go through the process of learning it all over weeks and months like Xavier did, but Derek didn't want to wait to talk to me. Besides, it was the thought that counted, and I was honestly thoroughly ecstatic. Derek cared about me, and I cared about him. I knew now that if I just _let_ myself, I could see me falling in love. Forever.

**This chapter is a catalyst of sorts. Up to this point, Emily has been struggling with whether or not she could let herself take a step away from the life that she's known and fall into Derek's world. Here, she has decided that she's going to walk to her future because there's no use in sitting around and thinking about it. I just wanted to make sure that everyone got that loud and clear. Call me overly thorough. Haha. (:**

**What do you think? Leave me a review in the box below, and I will be forever grateful. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Peace (:**


	9. Mind Games

**BreeTico – I felt like Max would really be a lot of help. Too bad he can't stay for more than a day.**

**I just wanted to let you readers know that Mrs. Crane has posted the first chapter on Independence on her blog. Go read it! It has a ginormous cliffhanger that will have you begging for December to come faster, but it is **_**totally**_** worth it! **

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_9: Mind Games_

We rolled into the parking lot with fifteen minutes to spare. After Max had taught Derek and the rest of his family how to sign, he'd decided to take a break and wait until Robert returned home to teach him. The rest of us had dispersed. Zach had retreated to his bedroom to study, Madison told me, and Carissa obviously had plans with some friends since she darted out of the room as quickly as she could, calling out something that I couldn't hear in the process. Out of everyone, she and Zach seemed the least interested in their newfound language abilities. Jack and Derek disappeared to the living room, challenging each other to a vicious game on their Xbox while Madison and I stayed in their kitchen to help Victoria.

Madison enjoyed her sudden knowledge of sign language the best. While Victoria boxed up the leftovers, I opted for washing the dishes while Madison dried and put them where they belonged. Her mother and I had to keep getting her back on track, since she would paused and try to sign something out, usually just random words, at which she would giggle and then continue doing her job. I actually had a hard time stifling in my own laughter. I didn't want to egg her on since it looked like Victoria was slowly getting annoyed with her youngest daughter's antics.

After we'd done the dishes, we lost about two hours while Victoria went to do her own thing. Madison and I perched on the couches and watched the boys as they played some sort of covert ops game. Jack was pretty ruthless when it came down to the competition of it all, continually searching out Derek's little character to try and ruin his game, since the two of them chose to play on opposite teams. Derek, though, managed to keep his head instead of getting angry at his brother. Even _I_ was getting annoyed with Jack and I wasn't even playing the game. Madison split her time in between ragging her brothers and talking to me. I discovered that it took all of them a moment to collect their thoughts into what they were about to sign the first time they signed it, but after that they were just fine. Whenever I introduced new words to them when I replied, they paused to translate it before replying. But the more we talked the faster they got. Particularly Madison, since she looked like she was never going to actually speak out loud ever again.

Now, back at the shop, I could see Xavier talking to one of the customers. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't figure out _why_. I would easily put down money that my mom was in her office. She hid out in there like it was her own personal haven. I guess it could have been, since she had her computer there for whatever she wanted to use it for. My mom could be reading in there, too, but I doubted that she would pick up a novel over her favorite game – a bubble shooter. It was amazing, the things that kept her occupied.

Derek opened his car door (we'd returned to the classic car that he'd picked me up in the very first day) and I scrambled to get out before he could walk around to my door. I didn't want him thinking that I was some sort of damsel in distress that needed him to open the door for me. If anything, he needed to think of me as his equal. I could handle myself, despite the fact that all he wanted to do was protect me. He'd told me that it was ingrained in his blood to keep me safe, and that generally meant keeping me close to him. I wasn't exactly complaining about the arrangements.

Derek still started around to my side of the car despite the fact that I was already unbuckled and stepping out of my seat. I gripped the top of the door to steady myself since the car was so freaking low to the ground. He paused just on the other side of the door and waited until I looked up at him. Where Madison was like my mother, saying the words as she signed to me, Derek was like Xavier. He either chose to speak out loud and let me read his lips, or he chose to sign to me. He had never combined the two yet. Signing, he asked me, "What are you planning for tonight?"

Derek had sort of pressed for me to spend the night at his house, using at least Madison as a diversion for my mother. Madison had even offered to ride with us over to the shop. She had said that it was because she wanted to see where "the magic had happened" but Derek had shot her down on that and told her that she needed to stay home. I had no idea why he wanted me to spend the night at his house so badly, but he sort of looked nervous about the whole thing, as if he thought that there was a chance that something bad would happen if I wasn't at his side. Madison had been the exact same way and Jack had been uncharacteristically quiet when Derek brought it up. I knew them well enough that I knew it had to mean something was up. I had the feeling that protection was key to him. If he was acting this crazy (after three days, of course) then it meant that there was something he was worried about. Part of me said to tell him to get over it, and the other part was dying to rush home and pack my bag.

"I don't know yet," I said out loud, taking a deep breath. Derek had this smell about him, like boy and some sort of strong, somewhat spicy cologne. I liked it. A lot. I turned for a second and grabbed my purse off of the floorboards of the car, slinging it over my shoulder. I pulled my hair out from underneath the strap.

Derek reached out and took a hold of my waist with both hands. In all honesty, I'd dated a few guys in my past, some of them I wasn't too proud of. The majority of them were like me, either deaf or partially deaf, and we'd connected on a very basic level. Xavier was one of the only guys that had regular hearing that I'd ever kissed. But none of them had been very forward with me. The most any guy had ever gotten out of me was a make out session, and all clothes had stayed _on_. I wasn't easy, and if I was going to be honest with myself, there weren't that many guys that wanted to date me in the first place. So I was a little blown away by how Derek sort of commanded physical touch. I mean, I understood the reason behind it. But I liked the way he touched me without worrying about it. It was sort of like he'd not only laid claim to me with his imprint, but also in his head. And _that_ was what I really liked.

Instinctively I put my hands on his chest. Underneath the soft fabric of his shirt I could feel his heartbeat in his chest. But there was something else there. It sort of felt like he had some sort of sped up irregular heartbeat, or even some major murmur. But I knew better than that. Nestled right next to his heartbeat was mine. They weren't exactly beating in unison, but they were beating together. The thought alone brought a small smile to my lips. Derek beamed down at me, and I realized that at some point I'd curled my fingers into his shirt. I released the fabric immediately, quickly smoothing out the wrinkles I'd created there. "Sorry," I said quietly.

In answer, Derek just leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead. Yes, he was pretty forward, but he was also extremely gentle and sweet. I had the feeling that he didn't want to force me into anything, but he needed this contact for himself. My eyes closed until he pulled away from me. He signed with one hand, so it was a little shaky and I had to think a little harder than usual to replace the hand that he kept around me. "Text me when you know? I'll even have Carissa and Madison come pick you up if I need to."

"We'll see," I told him conspiratorially. I wanted to say _yes, send your sisters_ but I _couldn't_. Not yet, anyway. I had to see how my mom was taking everything and if she would even consider letting me go to a friend's house on such short notice. Besides, if Derek had his sisters come pick me up just so my mom could see that they were actual girls, she would be sure to pin Carissa as being older and Madison as being so young that she couldn't drive. Then again, I could say that Madison was one of the girls from some sort of deaf group, since she could sign well enough, now. But I didn't want to lie to my mom any more than I had to. And I was already lying so much.

On an impulse, I stood up on my tiptoes and threw my arms around Derek's neck, my chin resting on his shoulder. There was the touch of his hand on mine, but then there was a hug, and they were completely different. I'd had a few hugs with him, and every single time they felt like this. Full on contact made a simple touch feel a little less significant. It wasn't like night and day, but it was warmer, like a real hug mixed in with the comforting sensation of your significant. It was like being wrapped in a cocoon. Derek reacted just like I thought he would, burying his nose in my hair at my neck. For just a second, I let my eyes dart into the front windows of the shop. It looked like Xavier had happened to look out at about the same time that I glanced at him. I think he'd even stopped talking mid-sentence, cutting off for a few seconds before carrying on. I could imagine him nervously shuffling and trying to ignore the fact that I was hugging another guy. Part of me wanted to tell him to just get over it. The other part said that maybe I should be a little more sensitive.

I was sort of tired of having my mind ripped in two with completely different opinions on things.

I released Derek and took a step back. He smoothed his thumb over my cheek and then signed, "I want to try signing a release to you and see if it works. Do you think that will work?" He looked like he'd just stumbled over a good experiment, like he was itching to try it out.

I shrugged. "It's worth a shot, isn't it? Just don't get in the car and drive off if I'm stuck here on the sidewalk." I paused as he chuckled and added, "Why does that happen?"

I was starting to really like the fact that he could sign now. It made things ten million times easier. "The theory is that the imprints want us to stick together. They don't want us to separate for fear that we won't come back to the other. And I think it has something to do with who's walking away. I just haven't figured it out yet." He paused to make sure that I got everything before continuing. "So we're going to try this. Emily, I'll come back and see you soon. In fact, I'll be waiting for your text message. Depending on the answer, I'll be hiding in the back of a car waiting for you or I'll be sneaking up onto your roof."

I laughed, swatting at one of his hands. "You are enjoying this way too much," I told him. "You like sneaking around, huh?" I teased, patting his chest, "So when you were a kid, I bet you ran around and pretended that you were a ninja."

"So what if I did? Did you run around and pretend you were a princess?"

"No," I giggled, "I pretended I was a ninja, too."

Derek laughed and then glanced over his shoulder. "You should go inside. It's almost four, and I don't want your mom to think that I'm a bad influence on you. And don't forget to text me."

"I won't. I'm sure your tyrant side won't let me." I smirked at him as I glided past, letting our fingers linger together for just a few moments as I walked by him. I paused for a second and turned around to face him. Like a child, he stuck his tongue out at me. Surprising myself, I laughed so hard that my eyes blurred with tears. I reached for the shop door as he leaned against the front of the car, his hands stuffed into his pockets and his feet crossed at the ankle. "Go away and pine for me." I told him. He gave me a joking sneer as I slipped into the shop. And just like that, I was _confident_. I mean, I had flirted with people before. At least, I think. But with Derek I didn't have to think about what I was going to say or worry about how he was going to take it.

I stepped past Xavier without saying a word to him since he was still talking with a customer, motioning towards a small keyboard. Slipping behind the counter, I dropped my purse to the floor. I nudged it under the desk with my foot and swiveled around in my seat, wondering if I should read a book or go say hi to my mom and try to schmooze it up before asking if I could go spend the night with "Madison." I had the feeling that when Derek offered to let me spend the night with his sisters, he was really saying that he wanted me to spend the night with him. And just spend the night as in _sleep_. I needed my beauty rest, after all. And instead of being worried about it, I was sort of looking forward to it. All I had to do was make my mom think that I was going to be hanging out with Madison instead of Derek. Legally, I could have done whatever I wanted. But I didn't want to get on my mom's bad side. She was still my family, even if Derek and the rest of the Stantons were my future.

Finally, I decided that it would be best to ask earlier on than later. But first, I had to check and see what kind of mood my mom was in. She hadn't been bothered when I told her that I was going to hang out with Derek this morning. All she told me was that maybe I should make some time to hang out with Xavier or some other friends. She had liked Derek, and apparently I'd said the right things to her when we talked about him because she didn't seem to have any problems with him. But she didn't want the two of us hanging together _all the time_. She said that we needed balance, and that meant that for as much time that we spent together we needed some time apart. I had the feeling that the rules were different when you were an imprinted couple, but I couldn't bring that up with her. So I had just nodded and gone along with it. Maybe if I used Madison's name, she would relax a little bit when I told her I was going to hang out with Derek next time.

Spinning in my chair one last time, I got up and headed straight for her office. I peered in the slit of a window and could barely see her sitting at her computer. Her eyes were staring intently at the screen, and I was sure that she was playing her bubble shooter. I'd played it on the computer behind the counter and it _did_ have some addictive qualities. My mom was just more susceptible to it than I was, I guess. Now would probably be the perfect time to step in. Unless she was losing, and then it would be the total _wrong_ time. But I couldn't tell how her score was from the door, so I decided to chance it.

I knocked on the door for a moment. Mom motioned for me to come in, and I twisted the knob and let the door close behind me. "Hi," I said, taking a seat on one of the chairs opposite of her.

She hit the pause button on the computer and looked up at me. Lifting her hands, she signed, "How was your day?"

"Fine," I answered out loud. "I went over to Derek's house. We had lunch. His mom makes a pretty good stir-fry." I told her, hoping that a few menial words would make her think that everything about me and Derek was normal.

It didn't work as well as I thought it would. She peered at me over the top of her computer monitor. "Are you and this boy dating?"

"_Mom_," I groaned, dropping my head into my hands. "We haven't really talked about it. I just… I really like him, and he likes me."

"Well, has he kissed you?" She asked me, looking deadly serious.

I wondered if you could go pale and blush at the same time. This was not a conversation that I wanted to be having with my mom. I mean, she was better than my dad, but _still_. "Is it possible to die from embarrassment?" I asked her, my face still buried in my hands. When I looked up, she was giving me the expectant look that said she was still waiting for my answer. "No, mom, he hasn't kissed me."

"Well, how long have you two been doing this dating thing?" She signed. I was hoping that her game would make for a good distraction, but she'd paused it. Her attention was fully on me.

"It's not really a dating thing," I blurted out. "I mean, it sort of is." I had to think of a lie, and fast. "We've known each other for a while. He had a deaf grandpa," I told her, saying the first thing that came to mind. "He came by one of the deaf meetings a few months ago, and we hit it off right away." Well at least there was a truth in there somewhere. "It's just been… I don't know, more like I want to be _with_ him." I said, hoping that I could smooth the lie over some other time. Derek didn't know his grandfather on his mother's side very well. According to him, his mom only saw her side of the family for a week every year, the only other times being when she was personally invited to Tennessee or when they came to visit her here in Chicago. "Mom?" I thought about continuing, and then I thought against it. And then I decided that I might as well slip some sort of foreshadowing in there somewhere, because it was bound to happen one day. "I think he might be _the one_."

Her eyes grew as big as the breakfast plates at the house. I realized right in that moment that this was what she feared. Not just me growing up and moving away, but me falling in love and risking my heart. She and my dad had a good run, but it didn't last forever. I knew that sometimes she still hurt over their divorce even though it had been years. I knew that she wanted to protect me from that kind of pain. But the only way to do that was to keep me from living. "You haven't even kissed him and you think he's the one you want to spend the rest of your life with?" She asked. Her expression said that she was sort of swept away by the romance of it all, but she was still kind of worried about me. Derek had been right when he said that nineteen was young. But I knew what I wanted. And unlike the rest of the world, I basically had a guarantee that said it would last forever.

I shook my head. "When you say it like that it sounds bad." I barely held back the snort at my own cliché. She hadn't said it and I couldn't hear it. That seemed to fly over her head, though. "It's just… God, mom, he really does care about me." I thought about when we first met, the first few times we'd touched and it had been tentative. "The first time he held my hand, he asked permission. And when we're together, it feels almost magical. Like anything could hit the world and we'd be just fine because he would take care of me. I feel warm when I'm with him. He gives me butterflies and he makes me laugh and I don't have to think about what I'm going to say to him because it's so _easy_ to be with him. And I want to be there for him. I want him to come to me if he needs help with anything." I tried to explain what I was feeling in words that she would understand. I couldn't tell her that I liked it when he held my hand because he took away my anxiety or that I looked forward to the moment when he could talk in my head. She would think that I was insane. But I could twist my words to make me sound completely love-struck.

I had been staring down at my hands, particularly at the navy blue nail polish that had been on for weeks and was cracking off. Most of it was gone. I needed to repaint them. But the navy blue reminded me of the silky soft shirt Derek had been wearing the day we imprinted. I smiled to myself, biting my lip, and looked up at her. My mom sat behind her desk, looking down at a picture frame. I knew that it was the two of us, both of us smiling brightly at the camera last time we'd decided to take a short trip to the beach. When she looked up, I could see a faint hint of tears coating her lower lashes.

She shook her head and gave a small laugh, wiping her fingers underneath her eyes. "Sorry," she signed out to me, "I'm just so blown away. You're only nineteen, but that's what love _feels_ like." She said. "Honey, I know you want him to be the one, but your first love most likely isn't going to be the one you stay with. Look at me and your father. He was my first love and we ended up divorcing."

"Derek is different," I told her. "He's not like dad, I swear." Dad wasn't a bad person, but he was somewhat selfish. I believed that a lot of my parents' fighting had stemmed from me and my accident. They'd never fought before I lost my hearing. It was only after. And that was what led up to their divorce. Both of them told me it was because their relationship had gotten strained over the years. They'd only separated at first, but after a year they mutually decided to divorce. And even though my mom had agreed with it, she'd still been heartbroken over it. Like she said, my dad had been her first and only love. "Derek's family doesn't believe in divorce, mom. And you should see them. Even his grandparents look like they just got married yesterday."

"Just because his grandparents have that kind of love doesn't mean that you two will," she signed out. The look on her face said that she was sad that she was the one that had to tell me this, but she didn't want me to get in over my head and be crushed later on. Like Derek, she just wanted to protect me.

"It's not just his grandparents. It's his entire family. His parents, his aunts and uncles…." I let my voice fade away because I was getting dangerously close to letting her know things that she shouldn't be privy to. I was being honest in saying that every single one of Derek's family was happily married, but I didn't want my mom to look at that and think something bad of it. There was a possibility that she would think that there could only be trouble coming from that kind of devotion to each other. She was my _mom_, for God's sake, and she would do anything to keep me safe, even if it meant telling me things that I didn't want to hear.

I shrugged. "We'll see." I told her, deciding to end it at that. If I wanted to go shave my head and wear black lipstick I could. I could go live with Derek if I wanted to. If it came down to choosing Derek or my mom, I knew that it would be Derek hands down. I couldn't live without him and he was the love of my life. Or, at least, he was supposed to be. My mom had said that what I told her I felt when I was with him was the very definition of love, but I wasn't sure if I loved him. How do you know? Does someone else tell you or is it just something you _know_ when the time is right?

I brought my knees up to my chest in my chair and rested my chin on them, watching her for a moment. "Hey, I have a question for you." She inclined her head towards me to let me know that she heard me and was waiting. In the awkwardness of the moment, she'd returned to her game, putting up a buffer between us. "My friend Madison wants me to spend the night at her house tonight and hang out with her tomorrow. Is that okay? I already made sure that I have the late shift tomorrow." I bit down on my lip while I waited for her answer.

She glanced over at me. She leaned back in her seat, clearly pleased with herself. I would venture a guess that she had won her level and had a short few minutes before the next one started up. "Who is Madison?" She asked, her hands moving in front of her.

"She's just a friend. We just sort of… hit it off, I guess." I nearly winced since I'd used the same words to describe Derek, and I sort of wanted to keep him out of my mom's head at the moment. "She asked me earlier today." I added, as if that would make it any better.

Mom sat there for a second, before saying, "Sure, honey. And don't worry about coming in tomorrow. You hang out with your friend. You deserve a day off."

"Really?" I asked, truly shocked. I hadn't had a sleepover with a friend since I was about sixteen, and that had been a party of deaf girls. We'd watched movies with subtitles and painted each other's nails. It had been years ago. But then again, she hadn't met Daisy, the girl who'd thrown it before, either. She just introduced herself to Daisy and her parents when she dropped me off. But that had been three years ago, and I was old enough to make my own decisions now. Technically, I could be roommates with someone I didn't even know. I guess it had something to do with my mom's vow that she would let me have as much of a life as I could while still living under her roof. "Well, thanks." I said. "I'll text her and tell her to come pick me up at the house after closing."

Mom just nodded, returning to her bubble shooter game. I sat there for a moment longer before thanking her quietly and slipping out of the room. Plopping into my chair, I smiled to myself and spun around a few times before reaching my phone. PICK ME UP TONIGHT AT 8:30. BRING MADISON.

# # #

My shift at work was slow. Xavier had gotten a coffee on his way to the shop, but unlike yesterday he didn't buy me a cookie. Apparently he'd been pretty sure that I wasn't going to show up at twelve like he did every day and had decided to let me know that he wasn't pleased with me by not buying anything, not even one of those healthy bran berry things. He must have been really mad at me.

But I didn't linger on it for too long because in about five minutes, Derek and Madison were going to be rolling up to the front of the house. Derek had texted me to let me know that Madison had chosen out the car so that my mom wouldn't put two and two together too early and realize that Derek and Madison were brother and sister. I could only wonder what they would pull up in. I'd rushed home and had stuffed several pairs of pajamas into a bag (it was too late to wish that I'd gone with something more adult and modern than super soft sleep shorts and camisole tank tops) and had made sure to toss in a change of clothes and toiletries for tomorrow. Now I was sitting on the stairs, about halfway up, so I could see out the window.

At exactly 8:29, I saw headlights pull up at the curb. I stood up sharply, alerting my mother who sat in the living room. She was waiting just like I was. She stood up as I pulled my bag over my shoulder and took the last few steps down the stairs. She met me at the front door. I opened it and leaned forward to give her a hug. "I'll text you," I told her, stepping out onto the front porch.

My jaw nearly dropped when I turned to look at the car. My mom had snapped on the porch light and I could see that they'd decided to take one of the bigger cars that I hadn't seen in the garage where Derek's bike was parked. It must have been one of their mom's or dad's personal cars, one of the ones that was parked at the house instead of the secondary garage. It was huge, a monster of a vehicle. The front window rolled down and Madison leaned out.

She waved at the two of us. From the short distance, I could see her call out something to my mom. She paused and signed a quick hello to me. I glanced back at my mom and she looked surprised. I hadn't mentioned that Madison could sign, but I figured that it would make her feel a little bit better. My mom had always been worried about letting me go hang out with people that didn't know how to sign. She was worried that they would make fun of me when I wasn't looking at them, I was sure.

"Who's driving?" My mom asked, her hands moving quickly as she peered into the dark.

I shrugged. "Her brother, I guess," I told her nonchalantly. It wasn't a lie. "Bye, mom," I said as I headed down the steps. I noticed that the windows were darkly tinted like the other cars' windows had been. Apparently the Stantons liked their privacy. I pulled open the back door and climbed inside. Madison rolled up her window and turned around to face me. Derek was sitting in the driver's seat, and he reached back to touch my hand, keeping the other on the wheel. My mom stood on the porch and waved until we got down the street.

Madison turned around to face me. "You know, I'm not sure how much I like being your decoy," she signed out, a grin across her face. "But I know you'll return the favor one day. I can _tell._" She burst out into laughter and I couldn't help but join along.

We drove in relative silence to Derek's house. Madison would turn around to sign something to me and I would answer, but the conversations never went very far. I couldn't tell what it was, but I had the strange feeling that they were hiding something from me. It was almost like it was tangible in the air. There was just that awkward sort of tension that made me nervous. I sat there in the back seat, my hand wrapped comfortably in Derek's, and waited for the right moment to tell them that I wanted in on the secret.

We pulled up into the driveway. Derek had to unbuckle his seatbelt and lean out of the window to type in the code to the gate since the SUV was set up so high. When the gate slid open, Derek carefully drove in and parked in the garage connected to the house. Madison stepped out of the car and I hurried to slip out on the same side. She looked up at me as a nearly pinned her in between the two cars. When we didn't make our way around the front of the car, Derek wedged himself between the front end of the car and the far wall where all of the lawn supplies were.

"What's going on?" He signed, a single eyebrow raised as he looked at me.

"I want to know what you two are hiding from me," I accused. I looked up at Derek. "Don't tell me you think I'm that stupid. I _know_ that you guys are keeping something from me. And if I'm a part of this family like you say I am, I deserve to know." I knew that my words were a little sharp, more so than I'd intended. They had been nothing but nice to me, inviting me into their family. Robert had even told me that this was my family now, and what was theirs was mine. It was probably hitting below the belt.

Madison glanced over her shoulder to her older brother. Derek sighed and shook his head, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. I knew that movement. He did it in the storage room right after we imprinted. I'd been so sure he was going to kiss me then but he'd just stepped back and pinched his nose. I'd heard somewhere that it was supposed to help people when they were angry, but I had the feeling that Derek did it when he was anxious. I wanted to leap forward and draw away his negative feelings, but I needed to know what it was he was trying to protect me from.

Derek shook his head and motioned for Madison to go inside. She did, sliding past me in the narrow space in between cars. Derek took a hesitant step forward, as if he wasn't sure if I would allow him closer or if I would turn around and run. I stood my ground and he took another slow step forward. With an exasperated sigh, I closed the distance between us.

"Tell me, Derek. I'm your significant, you know. I know that you want to protect me, but it would really make me feel better if you tell me what you're trying to protect me from." I told him quietly.

Derek sighed, relief crossing his face. He started signing feverishly to me. "I didn't want you to worry about it. There's nothing really to worry about, but I just wanted to cover all of the bases. We told you about the Visionary rewriting the rules. Well, she belongs to Max's clan, the Jacobsons. Their rivals _were_ the Watsons."

"Were?" I repeated, my eyebrows drawing together. From my understanding, once a rivalry was in place it lasted forever. There were never any imprints in between rival clans, and having any sort of relation with them outside of an imprint was downright disgusting.

"The Visionary has abilities that none of us even knew were possible. They tried to kill her and her significant so that they could take control over the council. She and Caleb stripped them of their abilities and their tattoos. They are no longer Aces." He said it like it was sort of a fairytale, something that had never really happened. But obviously it had, because this was history.

"What does this have to do with my protection?"

"You know our clan has a rivalry." Derek signed. For a moment I couldn't even focus on what he was telling me because he'd said _our clan_. It wasn't _his_ clan, it was _ours_. It meant that he really did think of me as part of his family. I had become a permanent fixture in his life, just like that. From my knowledge, it meant that there was another Ace family living in Chicago. Rivalries were created over things like ancient tiffs or territory. It was sort of stone age and animalistic, but I couldn't go stomping all over tradition. I was the newbie here. "Just like our clan is good friends with the Jacobsons, their clan was pretty tight with the Watsons. They aren't as twisted or anything, but they're not exactly friendly. The Watsons were _the_ bad guys, if this were a story. The Watsons were way out of line." He explained to me. "And ever since the Visionary made a move on them, there have sort of been… lines drawn." He signed, his eyes searching mine for panic. "They were close with the Watsons, we're close with the Jacobsons. And since the Watsons are no longer Aces, there are people jockeying for their positions. The Visionary wants to change things around here, but she's younger than you. And even though she's strong, there are plenty of people that want to pull the hood over her eyes. Our rivals haven't gotten any imprints back because they aren't as deserving as the other families, apparently. They must have broken some of the sacred Ace rules. And they're upset. Now that we've imprinted, they have a reason to mess with you and me and our family. I don't know if they're going to do anything, but it's just for your protection."

I took a deep breath, taking it all in. "Okay," I sighed. "I can handle rivals." I told him. Derek looked relieved. I patted his chest. I wish he would have just told me earlier.

"If I would have known you were going to take this so easily, I would have." He admitted.

I stared to reply before I realized that his answer made no sense to what I'd said _out loud_. However, it did make sense to what I was thinking. I stood there, sure my eyes were huge, and stared up at him. Derek looked down at me. I could tell that he was confused by the way my heart started beating a little harder. And then he realized it.

"I just read your mind!" He exclaimed, forfeiting his signing skills to call it out in the garage. He looked so happy about it that I found myself grinning like an idiot. Derek scooped me up in his arms, lifting my feet off the ground as he laughed, spinning me around in circles. It was only a tiny step forward, but we were in it together. And it really made me happy that he just wanted to experience it with me.

**Wow, this is truly the longest chapter I've written for this story, perhaps even the longest chapter I've written in my history of fanfiction chapters. Yay!**

**Anyway, you know what to do. Leave me a review because you guys know I love them. Remember, you don't have to have an account to leave me something. Thanks for reading! Peace (:**


	10. Kiss The Girl

**BreeTico – Lol, it made enough sense to me. And it's about time, too! (:**

**supernatural94 – If you're talking about Derek and Emily, I love them, too. If you're talking about the chapters, thanks! Lol (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_10: Kiss The Girl_

Derek let my feet touch the cement floor of the garage, but he didn't let go of me. He pressed his forehead to mine. The touch gave me warmth and comfort like it always did, but this time there was something extra to it that was different than what I was used to. Derek pushed through my barriers, delving _into_ my mind instead of just skimming the surface of it. I was about to step back from him when I heard him. At least, I assumed it was him. He was supposed to be the only one that could talk to me mentally.

_Can you hear me, Emily?_ I gasped at his words. I didn't know if it would be like he was literally speaking to me or if it was going to be more like I just got the feeling of what he was talking about, like when we sent images of things to each other. But it was like he was talking to me, and I could _hear_ him. His voice was exactly like I would have imagined for him. Fitting in with his rock star persona, it was deep with a sexy, gravelly undertone to it. It was warm and full of comfort and concern. The sound if it alone sent shivers down my spine, not only because I loved it but also because it was the very first thing that I'd heard in eight years. It had only been my own eleven-year-old voice going through my head. It was something truly magically to _hear_ something again that I was at a loss for words. And I was starting to think that even if I wasn't going to ever hear anything else again, at least I could hear _him_.

_I can hear you._ I thought long and hard on it.

_You don't have to try so hard. It's sort of like just talking to each other. I just have to focus on your for a second and think._ He replied back. I stood there, completely mesmerized by his voice in my head. _This sure is easier than sign language, isn't it?_

"We'll have to keep up the façade, though, when you're around my mom or Xavier. My mom thinks that we met at a deaf support group because you have a deaf grandfather." I told him out loud. He just laughed, and I was pretty sure that there was the hint of it running over my mind, low and warm. He drew me in more than ever, now.

_Let's go inside_. Derek said. He took my overnight bag from me and slung it over his shoulder, his fingers reaching for mine. I followed dutifully as we stepped around the SUV and to the garage door. Derek opened it and stepped aside so I could go in first. I stepped over the threshold and peered into the living room. It looked like they were all watching a movie. Victoria, Robert, and Max sat on one of the couches. Carissa and Jack were sitting on a different couch, and Madison was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table. They all looked up as we walked in. They still made me nervous, but it wasn't as bad as before.

Robert held up a hand in hello, saying something to the two of us. Carissa glanced over with a small smile and returned to the TV screen. Madison's eyes burned as she looked over the two of us. She seemed relieved. She must have been worried that Derek would tell me what he was protecting me from and I'd demand that he take me home or something. As I looked over them, I realized that Zach was missing. As my eyes scanned the room, I caught sight of him sitting at the kitchen table, still bent over a textbook. The kid had a sense of determination that I'd never seen before.

Derek pulled me into the living room, my bag still over his shoulder. His dad was saying something to him. Jack, obviously annoyed with his dad for disrupting, paused the movie and looked up at me. He shot his father a joking glare, but when he looked up at me he gave me flirty wink. I gave a soft snort, loud enough that Derek tightened his hold on me momentarily, and rolled my eyes at him. I liked Jack. I really did, even though he was immature and sort of annoying at times. But he knew how to have fun and to lighten the mood, even if it went all the way to teasing me and his brother. I could feel the rumble of Derek's voice in his chest when Madison caught my eye, signing to me.

"Are you okay? Derek didn't want you to freak out or anything." She glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was looking at her. The entire family seemed to know that Derek was paranoid about his family's rivals, which had remained anonymous to me. I wasn't bothered in finding out their name unless it became of sudden importance. I didn't plan to be anywhere near them.

I pulled my hand lightly away from Derek's. He continued to talk as I signed back to Madison, trying to keep it quick and virtually unnoticeable to the others. Now that they could all understand sign language, I was a little bit at odds. Derek was the only one who I could have a private conversation with in front of the others, now. I wasn't really bothered by it, though. "I'm fine. Like I told Derek, I can handle rivalries. I don't need to be babied." I tried to look as gentle as I could. I didn't want her to think that I was scolding her for not telling me or something. That was the only problem with sign language. There wasn't any real inflection like there was when you spoke.

Jack noticed and, with a characteristic smirk, signed out, "He told you, huh?" I rolled my eyes at him, but I couldn't help but smile. I just gave a nod. Jack looked dead serious when he sighed, "So, you must be pretty persuasive." He added an eyebrow raise to his words and, in the middle of Derek and Robert's conversation, I burst out into laughter. I immediately went to cover my mouth with my hands, glancing up at Derek as I did so. He was looking down at me from the corner of his eye, and there was a smile touching his lips. Jack leaned back on the couch, laughing. Madison was smiling, and she rolled her eyes when I glanced at her. The only ones that didn't look like they thought something funny was going on were Carissa and Zach. Zach hadn't even turned around to see what we were doing, and Carissa was focusing on her cell phone.

"Sorry," I said, referring to the fact that I'd interrupted Derek and his dad. Derek just shook his head, slipping an arm around my waist. He looked up and said something to his family before turning and leading me down the hallway. _I just want to talk to you alone for a while_, he said in my head. It was amazing how fast I got used to his voice in my mind. At first, it was something so completely out of this world that I was blown away. It only took a few minutes for it to feel like it was normal, something that had been like that forever.

Derek led me to his bedroom. It looked like he'd attempted to clean it up a little bit since I'd been in it that morning. The bed was sketchily made, the covers just pulled up, though they were still wrinkled. His pillows weren't neatly lined at the headboard; instead they were just thrown there. He'd piled sheet music up on one side of his desk and had closed his closet doors. I smiled to myself as he put my bag down on his now-made bed. I was pretty sure that it was the first time that the bed had been made, however sloppily, in years.

_You don't have to spend the night in here if you don't want to. I mean, you can and I can sleep on the couch, or…._

I cut him off, feeling a blush crawl over my face. _It's fine. We can both stay in here, right?_ The moment I thought it, I wished that I could just clamp down on my mind to keep it from escaping. But it was probably too late. Besides, we'd have to cross that road eventually, right? I mean, Derek was supposed to be in my life forever, and by the butterflies he gave me after just a few days I was fairly certain that it would be a romantic relationship. Besides, there had never been an imprinted couple that _hadn't_ gotten married, to my knowledge. And honestly, I wanted to stay with him. My mom might have had a cow if she knew, but then again, she thought I was spending the night with Madison.

In my mind, it sort of felt like I heard him sigh. I didn't think about it for too long because he added, _Yeah, that's fine. If you're okay with it. I don't want to push you into anything more than I already have._ He sounded a little bit morose about it all. Clearly feeling the giant question mark in my head, he continued, _You wouldn't have to worry about anything like this if we hadn't imprinted. I'm already forcing you to be with me all the time. I've made you give up your life to be with me_.

_You're not being serious, are you?_ I asked, surprise coloring my mental voice. I couldn't hear myself talking to him, but I figured that whatever he heard was like my actual voice. I was dying to know what I sounded like. _Derek, I would have spent my entire life sitting behind that counter. Because of you, there's a life for me to have._ I reached out and took a hold of his hand, pulling him closer to me. It was the most forward I'd ever been with someone before. Continuing with my sudden personality change, I reached up and took a hold of his chin, forcing him to look down at me. Choosing to speak out loud, I said, "Don't you dare wish that you didn't imprint with me. You understand?"

He gave me a look that was halfway in between admiration and a puppy that had gotten in trouble. I released my hold on his chin, glancing away momentarily. It was sort of embarrassing to do that. I hadn't been thinking when I just grabbed him. But apparently it worked, because he stepped forward and hugged me. My worry that he thought the imprint was a mistake melted away the moment his arms went around me. I let my head rest on his chest, closing my eyes and focusing on the beat of our hearts. It was so calming, bringing me down from whatever had been bothering me before. I remembered thinking at one point that this imprint had brought along pain and awkwardness, but that was overshadowed by the peace it brought. It anchored me.

We stood like that, just leaning onto each other, until Derek looked up sharply. He started to let me go to walk to the door. I turned to see who it was, but before he got there the door swung open. Jack looked smug as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the open door. He said something to Derek, holding up a hand to cover his mouth. Figuring that it was something that would either offend me or make me blush, I looked up at Derek. I knew that he would be annoyed if his brother said anything rude about me. But it must have just been slightly offensive and blush-worthy because Derek just shook his head, a small smile touching his lips. He glanced down at me and said, _Jack says that my mom's breaking out the ice cream. We usually have sundaes on Sunday._ He grinned at me, despite the cheesiness of it all.

"Ingenious," I replied.

Jack looked in between us and signed, "No way. You two are talking to each other? I don't believe you." He had that look in his eye that said he was having fun teasing us.

"Believe it," I told him. I sat down on the edge of the bed and kicked off my shoes. Derek had already taken his off and Jack hadn't ever been wearing any when I was over here, so I figured that they didn't mind the fact that I was taking mine off. I pushed them to the end of the bed and brushed my hair out of my eyes. Ice cream sundaes sounded really good at the moment. Besides, I figured that if I was going to lie to my mom and tell her I was spending the night with Madison I should spend a little quality time with her.

Jack's eyes scanned the room, settling on my bag sitting in the very center of the bed. He looked amused, that was for sure. Immaturity at its finest. I couldn't wait to see who he would imprint with. Hopefully she would be able to handle his flirty jokes and characteristic smirk. But then again, what if she was exactly like him? Two Jacks in one family would either be a nightmare or a party. Derek picked that up from my mind and he gave a little chuckle. Jack looked in between us like we'd sudden grown extra heads and then he shook his own head and turned to head down the hall.

I laughed to myself and followed him, leaving Derek behind for a few seconds. The majority of the house, including the hall, had wooden floors. They were cool on my feet as I followed Jack's retreating form. He turned the corner that led into the living room. I paused at the doorway. The times when Derek had left me alone while we were at his house were very few. He was my comfort blanket and I didn't want to go anywhere without him hovering at my shoulder. But I needed to get used to the fact that he wasn't going to constantly be around. Besides, these were my future in-laws. The thought made goose bumps rise on my arms, but I just steeled myself and stepping into the room. It was nearly empty. Only Madison lingered behind. When I stepped in, she jumped up from the couch and turned to me.

"It's Sundae Night!" She proclaimed, signing it at the same time. She looped her arm through mine and dragged me to the kitchen. It looked like they'd suddenly decided to open an ice cream shop in their kitchen. There were about five different flavors of ice cream, from vanilla to rocky road, and there were an endless number of toppings. I saw chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and an array of candy. There was even a bowl of hot fudge, chunks of the brownies Victoria had made for lunch, and a jar of caramel sauce. My mouth watered at the sight of it. I had always had a sweet tooth. Pastries and deserts were my ultimate weakness.

_My mom loves sweets, too._ Derek's voice echoed through my mind. On instinct, I looked over my shoulder to find him standing there, looking pleased with my reaction to their Sundae Night. I couldn't remember if I'd told him I loved sweet stuff. I figured that he would have noticed that Xavier brought me something like a cookie or a tart to snack on every time he walked in the store. Well, until recently. But maybe Derek didn't know that. In any case, if he was digging around in my mind he'd be well aware by now.

Victoria saw us standing in the doorway and beckoned for us to come in. She handed me a brightly colored ceramic bowl and motioned for me to go ahead. Carissa was already slipping back to the living room where the movie's credits were rolling. All I saw in her bowl was a single scoop of vanilla ice cream. Someone was a little stingy with their sweets. I was sure that to her, I would look like a pig when I rolled in with a little bit of everything. Madison leapt before me in line. I could already see Robert and Max sitting at the kitchen table talking about something over their own bowls.

I scooped out my ice cream and ladled hot fudge and an assortment of candies on top, pausing to grab a spoon. Deep down inside, I figured that I should probably be ashamed of my excessive ice cream. But I wanted it, and I had always been lucky with the high metabolism my mom had passed down. I could eat almost anything and be perfectly fine in my body shape. I could probably stand to lose a pound or two on my hips, but I was far from being even slightly overweight. I looked over my shoulder at Derek and saw him pouring all of the leftover caramel in his bowl.

Well, at least that made me feel a little better.

The majority of the family headed into the living room. Madison told me that they always watched a movie on Sundae Night. She and Derek were the only ones that hadn't given me a slightly sad look when she mentioned it. It wasn't like I'd never seen any movies. I just had to watch them with the subtitles. It was very rarely as funny as it seemed to be when you could hear what they were saying, but I digress. I was about to go sit down when Derek spoke to me in my mind. _Do you mind if we go sit outside?_

I stopped midstride and turned to look back at him. _Sure_, I said, drifting back over to him. He opened the back door and I stepped out onto the front patio. During the day, the backyard looked pretty with its landscaped yards, outdoor kitchen, swinging bench seat and rectangular pool. The lights were on in the pool, making the water look like it was a crystalline blue color. I took a deep breath. I could smell the nearby flowers and the hint of chlorinated water.

The yellow bricks gave way to stone paths that led up to the kitchen and around the pool. Over in the far corner was the swinging bench. Derek started down the path and towards the bench. I sort of expected the stones to be warm on my feet but they were cool. It was just barely September, so it wasn't cold out yet. I followed him down the path and to the bench. I sat down, pulling my feet up onto the cushioned seat. Derek sat down right next to me, his hip nearly bumping mine. On an impulse, I turned and put my knees over his legs, stretching out my feet to the other side. Derek just gave me a smile and rested his bowl on my legs.

While we ate, we talked in our minds. Our conversation went from what we wanted to be when we were kids to our favorite foods, colors, and movies. I let him know that, back when I was able to hear, I'd played my guitar mostly by ear. We talked about my parents and then a little more about the Aces. He'd told me about the reunifications and the fun they usually were, excluding this past year's, since it had been "the craziest thing" he'd ever seen. We talked about his brothers and sisters and his family. We talked about the fact that Derek had decided to take a short break from college, unbeknownst to the council since it was technically an Ace law. We continued to talk even after we'd finished our bowls and he'd put them on the ground underneath the swing.

When I was pretty sure that we'd exhausted most of the topics that I was comfortable talking about – on my side, mostly about the accident that took my hearing, the horrible deaf support group meetings my mom had all but forced me to attend, my parents' divorce and Xavier as my best friend – I leaned against the back of the seat and closed my eyes. Derek continued to rock the swing. He'd told me about his mom's love for pastries, his dad's success in the car business, Zach's dream of being an engineer, Carissa's problem with the rules, and the band that he and his buddies started when they were sophomores to quote, "get girls." Derek had always followed the no dating rule, and his regular friends had teased him relentlessly about not having a girlfriend or turning down the girls that _did_ try to get his attention. It reminded me of all those orange-painted girls on that social website, trying to flirt with him inconspicuously. I wondered if he would have accepted any of their advances if his family hadn't insisted that he be dateless until he imprinted.

I realized that we'd been sitting out on the bench for hours. Even though it was still technically summer and slowly moving into the fall, it was decidedly a little cold outside. Neither of us was wearing a jacket, but Derek was still wearing his socks. He rubbed a hand over the top of one of my feet since they were like blocks of ice. I leaned forward, resting my chin on my knees. To an outsider, it would look like Derek and I were just staring at each other. In reality, we were still talking to each other as Derek told me about his most embarrassing moment in high school – the moment where, while acting like an idiot in the first place, he'd slipped as he was running by the cafeteria and took down an entire table with him.

Derek was a good storyteller. That was one of the first things I noticed about him when we talked on a deeper level than just Ace history. Even in his mind, his voice had an expressive inflection, and his eyes glowed. I couldn't tell if it was because of the pool lights reflecting in them, but either way they were bright and beautiful. And his laugh, my God. The first time I heard it clearly in my head I nearly had a heart attack. It was alluring and low. It made me want to lean closer to him and hear it all the more.

His lips quirked up as he was telling me about one of his best friends that he never really saw anymore, a guy named Quinn who had anger issues and a penchant for being the class clown. Derek was telling me that he was worse than Jack – hard to believe – and he continued by telling me all of the pranks that Quinn had played when they'd still been in school together. As he talked, I found myself staring at his lips. He didn't seem to notice because he was glancing out over the pool and towards the windows of the living room. We could see that it looked like Jack and Madison were still watching a movie, probably a different one than what they'd been putting in when Derek and I stepped outside. Victoria was in the kitchen cleaning up, and Robert was sitting at the kitchen table with Max. It was bound to be late, but it looked like nearly everyone was up. I didn't see Zach or Carissa anywhere.

I turned my attention back to him, thinking about how perfect this was. I couldn't hear a sound in the outside world, but Derek was inside my head. He was one of the only guys I knew that would sit out on a bench with their girlfriend (cough, was girlfriend the correct word?) at night, where he'd tell her stories about when he was in high school without the least bit of embarrassment. And as I sat there, I wondered how in the world I'd been so lucky to find someone that would do anything for me. How had I managed to find a person that I knew I would spend my forever with in just a few days? My mom thought that we had known each other for months and she still couldn't believe the notion when I'd told her that we'd never kissed. Thinking about the kiss that I'd never had….

In the previous days, I'd wanted it, but I had told myself to take a step back and think about it. Derek had been a blip of comfort and mystery, and I'd always told myself to think about the latter. But I'd accepted everything now, and I knew that he was my future. How long could I sit there and tell myself to hold back? My freaking fortune cookie had said that I needed to walk to my own future. I couldn't second guess things anymore when they were clearly the answer. I needed to take a step forward. For God's sake, I was planning to sleep in the man's bed without even kissing him.

I had my thoughts carefully closed off to him, so he didn't seem to pick up on my decision. He just kept talking, finishing his story with Quinn getting teased for the rest of their high school careers. He leaned back in the swing, his eyes focused on the stars. When he looked back down at me, I was acutely aware of the fact that we were only inches apart. My breath seemed to catch in my throat as we looked at each other. Derek's mind was only slightly open. I got the feeling that he wanted to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss him. So why didn't he?

I suddenly remembered what he'd told me when we'd been sitting in his room. He said that he didn't want to push me any more than he already had. Even though his reasons were lame, he had really meant it. The most he was going to do without any prompting from me was drape an arm over my shoulder, hug me, or hold my hand. The most he'd ever done was press his lips to my temple, which is something that a parent might even do with their kid. He'd intentionally friend-zoned himself to make it easier on me. The realization hit me hard. I couldn't believe it. I'd learned through my various Ace lessons that whatever I felt for him Derek felt it magnified times two. It was supposedly because he had a piece of me constantly, and since he was the guy in the relationship he had the urge to not only protect me but to make sure that everyone else knew that I belonged to him. The best ways to show that you were taken was physical contact, after all. I'd thought he'd been so likeably forward, but in reality he had the most restraint of any person that I'd ever met before. It reminded me of all those times when he'd _almost_ kissed me but had drawn back at the last second.

That was him letting me make the decisions. Well, I'd made mine.

I was so _nervous_. When Xavier had kissed me, I'd sort of been all shaky and excited, but this was completely different. It was nerves mixed with a want so intense that it was almost hard to breathe. I leaned forward and little more and pulled my legs back from Derek's hold. He looked at me questioningly as I scooted closer to him. Nervously, I wrapped my arms around his neck. He closed his eyes and leaned against me. When he opened his eyes and looked down at me, we were so close that I couldn't even tell what color they were. He seemed to be debating something deep down inside, and I got the flash of him pressing me against the bench and kissing me until I couldn't breathe. He wanted it as much as I did, maybe more.

Before he could pull away, I whispered, "Kiss me." He hesitated for only a moment, probably wondering if I really meant it. I imagined him taking a hold of my chin and forcefully kissing me, just like he imagined in his head. Instead, he was gentle as he leaned forward and slowly pressed his lips to mine. It was sort of like my world was kicked over and sent spinning. It was like imprinting all over again, cold and warmth shooting through me at a million miles a minute. I could tell that he was feeling the exact same thing as his hands slid into my hair. His lips were soft against mine. He tasted like caramel and chocolate, like an explosion of sugar. He pulled back to take a breath and for just a few seconds we reveled in the fact that we'd shared a kiss that was purely _magical_.

We looked at each other for a moment, and then he pulled my face back to his. _This_ was the kiss that I'd been expecting – fiery, passionate, something that I had honestly never experienced before. His hands tangled in my hair as my arms, wrapped around his neck, slowly drifted down onto his chest. Underneath my palm, I could feel both of our hearts thrumming like we'd given them direct jolts of caffeine. His lips moved against mine, and he slowly deepened the kiss in a way that made me feel like I'd stepped on a live electric wire. Derek started leaning forward on top of me, pressing my back into the cushions on the bench. One of his hands reached down to pull my legs onto his lap as he kissed me senseless. I pulled away for just a second to breathe as he kissed underneath my chin. My hands slid into his hair – hair that I had wanted to run my fingers through since the moment we'd imprinted – and I marveled at the softness of it.

Derek suddenly pulled away from me even though my fingers were still tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck. He was still partially lying on top of me. I took a deep breath and glanced over to the side, towards the house. Jack was standing at the back door, and we were just barely inside the area that the pool lights hit. He could see us easily. I could feel a blush starting up my cheeks, but Derek made no move to detangle himself from me. Jack called something out to him, and I caught the sight of Madison in the living room window, her forehead pressed against the glass. In the kitchen, I could see Victoria, Robert, and Max doing their best not to look in our general direction. Embarrassment flooded through me and I looked away, bringing one of my hands down to cover my face.

Derek slid a hand behind my back. He sat up, bringing me with him. My legs were still draped over his, and I quickly put my feet flat on the ground. When I looked up, Jack was bent over because he was laughing so hard, probably either because of what he'd said or my obvious embarrassment, and possibly a combination of the two. _What did he say?_ I asked.

He hesitated for a moment before telling me, knowing that I'd find a way to get it out of him, anyway. _He says that my mom said to knock it off because she doesn't want to be a grandma just yet._ I snorted at the implication, even though my cheeks were flaming. I ran a hand over my hair, hoping that it didn't look extremely mused. I had to go back in there, after all. Derek actually laughed and reached over to brush my hair out of my eyes. He stood up fluently and reached over to capture my chin, lifting my face up so he could easily kiss me on the lips. I could feel the restraint behind it. If one of us was going to be in charge of stopping the two of us from moving too fast, it was going to have to be me.

When Derek pulled away I took a deep breath. It felt like I had deprived my lungs of oxygen. In a way, I sort of _did_. But I would rather kiss Derek and have to catch my breath all over again. It was… out of this world, completely. I could still feel his kiss in every fiber of my being. My nerve endings had been frayed. _It's probably best if we go inside. Jack says it's almost midnight._

I slipped my hand into his and let him lead the way around the pool and up to the back door. Jack was still out on the porch, grinning like he'd won the lottery. I sneered at him as I passed and he made the same face back, earning a round of giggles from me. We stepped into the living room and Jack followed. I glanced into the kitchen, but Victoria had turned her back to us and was scrubbing something in the sink. Robert was straightening the cuff of his long-sleeved shirt out, and Max was looking down at his cell phone. Jack went back to his seat on the couch and flopped out, picking up the TV remote. Madison smiled brightly at me, and she quickly signed, "That was _hot_."

I shook my head and tried to stifle my laughter as Derek called something out and swept me down the hallway. He pushed open his door and pulled me in after him, turning sharply to slam it shut. The movement pressed me up against the door. Derek put one hand on the door by my head and pulled me closer with the other, his arm wrapped securely around my waist. His lips came down hard on mine. I could feel the rumble in his chest against my hand. I let myself get lost in his kiss for a few moments before pulling away to take a breath and make him take a step back. I knew he didn't want to move too fast and he wanted to make sure that I was okay, but he was already having a lot of trouble restraining himself. I put my fingers over his lips and sent the thought to him. He took a deep breath and stepped away. I could feel a wave of relief from him that I'd managed to put a stop on things, but hidden underneath that was a slight pain. It was because the imprint wanted him to take out all the stops, but he wouldn't let himself do that. They hadn't been lying when they said that it was going to be hard for him.

_Derek_, I began softly, wondering if a simple touch would draw it away. I had no idea if it would have the opposite effect on him, though. I remained where I stood, leaning up against the door. I sort of felt bad about it.

_It's okay,_ he said quickly, cutting me off. _Sorry, I just let myself get in over my head. Kissing you is the best thing I've ever done. I can't believe I didn't do it sooner._

"Way to be a gentleman. You know, I've always thought of you as my knight in shining armor. You're doing a splendid job, by the way." I said lightly, hoping that it would take his mind off of things. He was sort of mad at himself for making me be the responsible one.

He laughed as I yawned and rubbed the corner of my eyes. I was pretty tired. Today had been… eventful. And with Sundae Night coming to a close, I desperately needed to get some sleep. My yawn was infectious; Derek covered his mouth and stretched out an arm. _Go get changed and we'll hit the sack._ I grabbed my bag off of the bed and returned to the hall. Derek's bedroom was directly across the bathroom, sandwiched in between Carissa's and Madison's bedrooms. I figured that Carissa and Zach were already in their rooms, either texting or studying or sleeping. I tried to be quiet as I knocked on the door despite the fact that I wouldn't be able to hear the reply and slowly twisted the knob.

The bathroom was done in a cottagey way. The floor was made of tan tiles. The cabinets and shelves were made of dark wood, probably the same type that was in Derek's room. The toilet and sink were made of white porcelain; the sink was a bowl sitting on the top of the cabinet, the tiles surrounding its base burnt orange in color. The shower curtain was the same orange color and the backsplash looked like miniature floor tiles. It was all very neat and uniform down to the slightly ragged orange and white towels in the large cabinet and hanging over the shower rack.

I changed into my pajamas, feeling a little embarrassed by what I had brought to wear. The last time I'd gone shopping for pajamas, I hadn't had anyone to impress. I'd gone for comfort with several pairs of soft fleece shorts that stopped halfway down my thigh and a series of loose camisoles with thin straps. Now, I didn't even want to step out of the bathroom in them, much less go into my boyfriend's – because that's what he was, right? – bedroom and climb into bed. But it was the only thing I had, unless I wanted to wear jeans and a T-shirt to bed. Maybe if the camisole was too much, Derek would let me wear one of his T-shirts over it.

Rolling my eyes at myself, I pulled my hair back away from my face and splashed water over my cheeks. I brushed my teeth and packed up my bag. Peeking out into the hallway, I made sure that it was clear before making a mad dash across it. I threw open the door without thinking about it. Luckily, Derek had already changed into gray plaid pajama bottoms. He wore a white undershirt that stretched across his chest. I paused in the doorway and his eyes roved over my legs and shoulders. _Don't look at me like that._ I snapped jokingly.

Derek's eyes met mine and he shot me one of his beautiful smiles. _Yes ma'am._ He replied. He gave me a short salute before going into the hallway. I figured that he was brushing his teeth and whatnot, so I set my bag down on the floor at the foot of the bed and headed over to his desk. I slipped onto the chair and picked up the piles of sheet music. It was a bunch of chords with words written here and there. It didn't look like he was the songwriter of the band. Derek's band also did a range of covers – their sheet music was in a different pile. The one that I was holding must have been the band's originals. I flicked through, looking over the chords. I could still remember the finger movements for each of them, even if I couldn't remember the sound. There were times when I had done the finger exercises without having a clue if I was actually hitting the right note. That had ended pretty quickly after frustration ensued.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jumped violently, my fingers immediately tightening their hold on the music. Derek apologized in my mind, coming to rest against the side of the desk. I looked up at him and gave him a smile. He looked good in his pajamas. I don't think that can be said for everyone. His hair still maintained the easy swoop and the slight volume that was more than mine could ever muster. His arms were corded with muscle. He was completely swoon-worthy.

_You tired?_ He asked me, his arms still crossed over his chest.

_Yeah, really tired._ I replied, blinking slowly to emphasize. He just laughed and headed over to the bed. He pulled back the hastily made comforter and the thin sheet. He arranged the pillows and tossed an extra one over to me. I stood at the other side of the bed, closer to his closet, and looked down at it. This was the very first time that I was sleeping in a bed that wasn't mine since I was a kid and had gone to sleep in my parents' bed. And this was completely different, because this was a boy that I really, _really_ cared about. Maybe even a boy that I already loved.

He seemed to be thinking the same thing, waiting for me to make a move. I might as well have gotten it over with. Besides, my future was filled with nights of sleeping by his side. I climbed in and he did the same. I couldn't be the only one feeling the awkwardness of it all, could I?

Derek pulled the comforter over us. I had been determined to sleep on the edge of the mattress to give him as much room as possible. He reached out and snapped off the lamp, plunging the entire room into darkness. I knew that I was facing him, but I couldn't see him. Even so, I seemed to know exactly where he was. His hand came up and took a hold of mine. Instinctively, despite my plans, I scooted a little closer to him. He pulled me all the way into his chest, so close that we were practically sharing a pillow. I could smell the mint of his toothpaste on his breath.

Snuggled up into his chest, I felt the most comfortable than I'd ever been before. I wanted to stay there, but I figured I should warn him of something first. "Derek?" I whispered into the dark. I could feel his mind answering in mine, a flash of a large question mark. "You should probably know that I'm a restless sleeper." It was true. There were times when I'd woke up with the sheets thrown off me or the pillows sprawled out on the floor. There were even a few times when I'd gone to bed normally and woken up with my head at the foot of my bed. How I managed to do that in my sleep I was still unsure.

_I'm fine with that._ Derek's reply was slow, like he was already falling asleep.

_You've been warned._ I let my eyes droop closed and snuggled a little closer, my face pressed against his chest as one of his arms draped across my side. The last thing I remember thinking before I fell asleep was that _this_ is what heaven felt like, and it was what my forever was going to feel like.

**Wow, longest chapter yet, and I really do believe it's the longest chapter that I've ever written for fanfiction. I'm giving myself a mental award for this one. :P**

**Leave me your thoughts in the box below. Thanks for taking the time to read this! Peace (:**


	11. Don't Get Your Hopes Up

**BreeTico – Honestly, I hadn't planned on it, but Jack and Madison are easily becoming Emily's closest friends (aside from Derek, of course.) And if you're excited about Emily being able to hear Derek, this chapter might have something of interest to you. :P**

**Complete Chocoholic – Lol, sorry. The long chapter run isn't quite over yet, but the most recent chapter written (being number fourteen; I'm halfway done with fifteen) is closer to my average number. And I liked that line, too! I have no idea why, but when I wrote it I gave myself a pat on the back for being so brilliant. Haha (;**

**Just a reminder: I try to post a new chapter every three to five days. With this one being posted, the next one will not be up until at least August 23****rd****, but I'll most likely be posting it in the wee hours of the morning. I just wanted to let you guys know about my updating pattern with this story! (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_11: Don't Get Your Hopes Up_

I woke up at the crack of dawn. At least, that's what it felt like. The one window in Derek's room had dark curtains drawn across. But the sun was definitely up. I realized that what had woken me up was the spear of light coming in from the doorway. Someone had opened it up to check on us, I was sure. With a slight groan I shifted just a little bit, using Derek's chest as a pillow. I'd told Derek that I was a restless sleeper, but I was pretty sure that I hadn't moved an inch since I'd fallen asleep. I was still pressed against my significant, my cheek resting on his chest, his arm draped over my side. My muscles felt like they needed to be moved around, probably because I _hadn't_ moved, but I didn't feel tired in the least. I felt… reenergized. Like it was the most perfect thing that I'd felt in a long time. If every morning would feel like this, then I could understand the reason that significants were usually in a rush to get married.

I swallowed hard at the thought. Derek hadn't proposed marriage to me, but he had offered to let me move in. I was pretty sure that the offer still stood, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to actually take him up on it. We'd been imprinted for four days. It was almost a week. According to Derek, his parents had set up a wedding as quickly as possible and were married in just under two weeks' time. Weddings were different for Aces. They were married by the Champion, or leader, of their clan. For the Stantons, it was Derek's uncle Marco. Rings were private, not given at a ceremony but after. The man bought his newly wedded wife a house for their wedding gift. The woman wore a red dress. It was often held at the Champion's home, and everyone was notoriously barefoot.

It sure was different. The moment I'd heard it, I remembered the vision I had when we'd first imprinted. I'd been wearing a red dress. I'd been barefoot, standing in someone's backyard. The ground had been sort of cold under my feet, but I was standing out there anyway because I'd decided that I could. At least I knew that in the future, no matter how far away it was, I still retained my stubbornness. I figured that it was probably my wedding. My wedding to Derek. It was in my future. I'd heard before that the future wasn't set in stone, but Derek had told me that Aces were big on fate and destiny. Whatever happened, I probably _would_ end up standing on cold ground in a red dress.

I shifted again. I could feel the springs of the mattress shifting underneath me. I wanted to just lie there all day where I was warm and comfortable, wrapped up in my significant's arms. Maybe I could just ignore the questions pounding in my head for a while. I'd have to work through them sometime, most likely in the near future, and I couldn't let my worries get in the way of my decision. I knew that right this moment, I would do anything to stay with Derek. My mom was my family, yes, but Derek was my future. She couldn't keep me away from him for any reason. She couldn't tell me that I couldn't move in with him. She couldn't tell me that I couldn't marry him, even though I was still young. I was nineteen. There were kids younger than me having babies, for God's sake. All I wanted to do was possibly move in with my boyfriend.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to wipe away the thoughts while I was still relatively calm. The worry that my mom was going to shoot me down just because she wasn't ready for me to grow up was making my heart pound a little harder, and I didn't want to wake up Derek. I was trying to be as still as possible because his arm was still over me so I couldn't roll away from him. I took a deep breath and shoved the thoughts away as hard as I could, knowing that I would only come back to them later. Hopefully I wouldn't be in the presence of Derek when I did. I didn't want him to worry about me and my indecision. I already knew that I wanted to move out of my mom's house and into Derek's. The only problem was when I was going to tell her and whether or not she would let me go or disown me on the spot. My mom wasn't a particularly cruel woman, but when she felt like something was threatening me she could be downright vicious. I wouldn't want any of that sort of attention on myself or Derek. If he got on her bad side now, I would never hear the end of it.

I made another small movement. Derek shifted underneath me, his arm tightening around my side. I tilted my head and looked right into his green-gold eyes. He looked even better in the morning, his hair mused and his eyes half-closed. There was definitely the hint of a shadow on his chin as he pulled me tight against him. He partly rolled over on top of me, and I knew almost instantly that he was playing a game. I let out a slight giggle as I pushed him off. With our combined momentum, we continued to roll until we were on the other side of the bed, me lying on top of him. I brushed my hair out of my eyes and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss before rolling away from him. He tried to catch me as I jumped away from him, my feet landing on the cool wooden boards in his room.

I brushed my hair out of my eyes and snagged my bag from the foot of the bed, dropping it onto his desk. "What time is it?" I asked, unzipping my bag and checking to make sure that I'd thought to bring my makeup and brush.

_8:30_. His reply was short and still tired. We'd gotten a good eight hours of sleep, and even though we seemed to reenergize each other while we slept, the both of us were probably used to having even longer hours. At least, he must have been. I was usually up and ready by 7:30, ready to ride down to the shop and start the day.

"Sorry for waking you up," I told him without turning around. I could feel his footsteps on the floor as he drew closer. He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder. I continued to move, arranging my clothes as neatly as I could around all of my stuff before zipping the bag up. I was going to have to take a shower, and then the two of us would have to find something to do. I wasn't sure if it would be safe for us to just hang around at the house all day. Madison was in school until four and Zach was bound to have classes for a good majority of his day. Victoria worked as a receptionist at the Virtuous cars headquarters here in Chicago, even though they weren't built here. Robert was the president and CEO of the company. Jack was supposed to have college classes since a higher education was required by the Ace council. I hadn't bothered to ask if Carissa had already graduated or not. But there was obviously someone else home because the fact that they'd bothered to check on me and Derek had been the reason I woke up.

_It's fine. My mom should be leaving soon to go to work._ He said. _What do you want to do? You have work at four, right?_

"My mom gave me the day off. I'm free all day." I replied, turning around to face him. He didn't move to give me any room. Apparently, kissing him had opened up a whole new door to the different levels of PDA. Derek was just as forward as I had imagined him to be. I reminded myself that by what I was able to pull from him, he was working hard to keep himself in check. I wondered if I was being a tease to him or if he was happy just getting what he got. I figured that I could dig around in his mind to find out, but for now, our simple contact seemed to be for the better. I leaned into him, letting my chin rest on his chest as he looked down at me. I let my arms go around his narrow waist. He bent forward and, despite my mental warning about my possible morning breath, kissed me on the lips. My entire body seemed to be tingling, like it had fallen asleep and was getting a jolt as the blood returned to my limbs.

Derek pulled back first. His lips hovered over mine for a second longer before he pulled away, giving me a sheepish smile. I understood what he was feeling, I guess. Even though a few more kisses would be fine in between us, if we continued he might not be able to wrap his head around the meaning of _restraint_. It was better to stop while he could still keep his head on straight. _I'll learn._ His words were low, whispered through my mind. _But for now, you'll have to forgive me for the mixed messages._

_You're giving me anything but mixed messages_, I replied in my mind, wrapping my fingers around the handle of my bag. Out loud, I said, "I've got to take a shower. Do you mind?"

_Go ahead. There are towels in the tall cabinet._ I gave him a small smile as I turned to his bedroom door. Just like I had the night before, I peered out into the hallway. I figured that there were less people in the house now, but I still didn't want to be caught in my shorts and camisole. I darted across the hallway and tentatively pushed open the bathroom door. Inside, it looked like someone had gotten out of the shower recently. There was the hint of steam on the corners of the oval-shaped mirror hanging over the bowl of a sink.

I set my bag down on the counter and turned to the cabinet to grab a towel. I turned on the hot water in the shower, waiting until steam came over the curtain before getting in. There was a rack that went from the top of the tub to the ceiling, something that Victoria must have installed. There were three shelves. The top held what had to belong to Madison and Carissa, since it had girly, fruity shampoos and body washes. The second shelf had men's shower gel and the third one had shaving cream and several pink razors. It reminded me that I needed to shave my legs either tonight or tomorrow morning when I was at my own house.

I was stingy with the shampoo and conditioner; I didn't want to use all of Carissa and Madison's stuff. It smelled amazing, like grapefruit. Feeling refreshed, I dried off and changed into my jeans and layered tank tops. I was in desperate need of getting my laundry done, so I figured that a few brightly colored tanks would be acceptable. I wasn't going into work, so it didn't really matter. Besides, I had the feeling that Derek would like me even if I was wearing a giant paper bag. I still wanted to look good for him, though. If we were going to be together, I wanted to be someone that he was proud to have on his arm. I looked at myself in the mirror, realizing that I didn't care if Derek saw me with wet hair and no makeup. That had to mean something, right?

With a sigh, I dug for my brush and pulled it through my hair, wincing on the tangles. I plugged in my blow dryer and dried my hair. I did my short makeup regimen, adding a little more mascara than I usually did. I leaned back and looked at myself, tossing everything into my bag and zipping it up. I hung the towel over my arm and messed with my hair for a few moments longer before deciding that it was satisfactory. With a sigh, I turned to the door and undid the lock, pulling it open.

I admit that I screamed when someone fell into the room. They'd obviously been leaning against the door, waiting for me to make my grand exit. Derek's bedroom door flung open across the hall. His jeans were low on his hips and he had a shirt halfway on, his arms stuck through the sleeves even though the rest of it hadn't made it over his head yet. He burst out into laughter when he saw me standing in still-steamy bathroom, gripping my bag like a weapon, Jack lying on the floor at my feet.

"Thank God, woman!" Jack signed. "I've got to pee!" I knew my eyes were wide as I stared down at him, completely shocked to even see him there. I'd been so sure that he'd gone to classes at the local college and hadn't been anywhere in the house. Jack punctuated his sentences with the widening of his eyes, and I got the gist of it. Quickly, I stepped over him and into the hallway as he scrambled up and shut the door behind him.

_He probably wanted to embarrass you. We do have other bathrooms in the house._ Derek said from behind me. I turned around just in time to catch him pulling the rest of his shirt over his head. My God. I suddenly wished my brain had a TiVo. That was something that I would record and watch over and over just for kicks. A flush colored my cheeks at the thought, and I hoped that Derek was either so busy that he wasn't paying attention to me or that I was more closed off than I thought I was. In any case, he didn't give me a flirty smile or raise his eyebrows at me. If he did hear it, he didn't comment on it.

_Well, he succeeded._ I wondered if my voice sounded embarrassed to him. Clearing my throat, I tossed my bag onto his desk and collapsed on the bed. I wasn't tired, but I just wanted to lay back and do absolutely nothing with my free day. I could mentally feel Derek moving around the room, but I couldn't really tell what he was doing unless I focused on him. I decided to let him have some time to himself as I rested my eyes.

The pillow smelled like Derek, like boy and men's cologne. I could feel a small smile touching the corners of my lips as I took a deep breath. I would have never thought that someone's scent would make me so happy, or make me feel so grounded. I guess that was because he was my significant. Anything about him, even his flaws, I loved.

I felt someone sit on the edge of the bed. I opened my eyes and saw Derek sitting there, right at my hip. He was tugging his shoes on, lacing up his combat boots. I sat up and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Derek used one of his feet to push my sandals over to me. I grinned a thanks and slipped them on, running a hand through my hair. "So, what are our grand plans for today?" I asked. Without really thinking about it, I started straightening the room. I moved the clock on Derek's bedside table and picked up a candy wrapper to toss in the trash. His cell phone was plugged up. I picked it up and ran my finger over the screen. He didn't seem bothered in the least. Most people are sort of protective of their phones and they don't like it when other people mess with them. I was one of those people. Even Xavier couldn't mess with my phone despite the fact that the only thing I ever got on it was text messages. Derek, though, didn't seem bothered in the least. I went to open something up and the phone locked up, asking me for a passcode. Well, _that_ was why.

_Two, eight, three, zero._ Derek's voice didn't even seem bothered by the fact that I was messing with his phone. That was like, one of the most personal things in the whole world. Phones were usually kept on your person, so people had no problems talking about things that they usually wouldn't. Derek trusted me not to be bothered about anything on his phone. I pressed the numbers in and the keypad lit up green for a moment before giving way to the back screen saver.

I flicked through the apps that Derek had downloaded. Most of them pertained to music, but there were a few that were about cars. One of them was supposed to help him keep track of the stocks. I wondered how often he actually opened that one. There were only a few games downloaded.

_We can do whatever you want,_ Derek finally answered my earlier question. I set down his phone and turned to make sure that everything that was mine was packed away in my bag. I set it on the desk chair and straightened the papers still stacked on his desk. When I was certain that it was in perfect order, I turned around to look at him. He was still perched on the side of his bed, tying a woven bracelet around his wrist. He reached out for the leather necklace with his family's crest on it, pulling it over his head. He looked up and me and gave me a broad, easy smile.

I leaned against the desk and pretended to think long and hard about what we should do. Chicago was a pretty big city, and there were places that I hadn't even seen. It was the type of place where you could live your entire life and still not eat at a certain restaurant or shop at a certain store. "I want you to give me a tour of Chicago."

Derek cocked an eyebrow. He managed a confused, slightly amused smile. _You've lived in Chicago your whole life. You know it as well as I do._

"I want to see _your_ Chicago," I told him. I went to sit on the foot of the bed, facing him. My knees touched his leg as I took a hold of his hand. "Every city is different to people. I want to see where your part of the city is. Like, where's your favorite restaurant? And where do you go in your free time? And what's your favorite place in the entire city?"

_Okay. I show you my Chicago, and you show me yours._ I laughed and nodded in agreement. He stood up, bringing me with him. I grabbed my purse and he stuffed his wallet into the back pocket of his jeans. Jack was walking down the hallway when we stepped out of Derek's room. He stopped to look me over, his eyes trailing from my head to my feet and back up. I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him. As we passed, Derek cuffed him in the shoulder jokingly.

In the kitchen, we just barely managed to sidestep Victoria's insistence that we have something for breakfast. To her credit, she didn't seem bothered in the least that her son's girlfriend (is that the right word? I still stumbled over the use of it. It seemed just too insignificant.) had stayed the night in his bedroom. But then again, we were significants, and we needed each other. If we weren't imprinted and I hadn't known the about the no-dating rule, which Derek followed religiously, then I would have been paranoid that Derek having a girl over was a common occurrence.

Derek led me out into the garage. He stopped at the pegboard just inside the door and mused over his options. I kind of wanted to give that bike of his a try. Derek must have been open to me, because he glanced over with a smile while reaching up to take a key from the board. He headed to a cabinet that had multi-colored doors. He opened one of them up and handed me a sleek black helmet before taking one for himself. _Your chariot awaits, my lady._

# # #

By the time I was usually at work, Derek and I had canvassed Chicago, sharing our memories. Derek took me for breakfast tacos at a little restaurant called Los Gorditos. We had parked the bike and walked to the little recreation center where they had playgrounds and sports groups for kids. Derek told me how he had played Pee Wee football and baseball, and how he'd tried and failed miserably at soccer. I laughed and led him to the other half of the recreation center, where my mom had enrolled me in piano before we found out that my talent lay in the guitar. Just being there was a little sad, since it just reminded me that I couldn't play an instrument anymore. But it was a part of my history and I wanted Derek to know every little thing about me.

After the recreation center, where we dodged constant questions as to whether or not we were already members to their gym and if we wanted to pay to become members, I took Derek to the restaurant my dad had always taken me to as a treat. For the majority of my childhood, my mom had tried her best to make sure that my father and I only ate low-sugar, low-fat, low-carb diets. The restaurant had been our little secret. It was a place that I had loved to come.

We drove past the venue where Derek's band, Triple Threat Touchdowns, had gotten their first gig and where they played regularly. We passed by the building where the deaf support groups were held. We passed by my middle school and his high school. We rode by the paintball field where Derek and his band-mates spent their free time and extra cash. Finally, we ended up at my favorite place in the entire city. It was a lightly wooded walking trail less than half a mile from the main road, but if you knew where to look you could find little ways that were off the beaten path to get down to the bottom of the manmade pond nearby. There were always ducks around, but they usually hung out by the path, where people would throw food to them. At the base there was a stone wall that stood a good five feet above the waterline. It was a place that Bailey and I would go to when we were bored and just wanted to sit down and talk somewhere without having to buy something at a café.

I had taken off my shoes so they wouldn't slip off my feet and fall into the water. Derek's shoulder touched mine as we sat there, overlooking the pond, in almost complete silence. We had sort of closed down our minds to each other, so all we really got were little trickles of information and snatches of thought. I kicked my feet back in forth, watching their shadows move across the top of the water. My hand rested on top of Derek's on the wall, keeping a channel open in between us.

I could feel the moment when Derek's mind sort of perked up. It was like he'd decided that he'd had something that he needed to tell me. I could tell through his half-closed mind that he'd been debating on whether or not to tell me or wait and see for himself. He didn't want me to be heartbroken later on. That thought alone made me eager to find out what it was. I was never very good with the preservation of my emotions. I was too curious for my own good. Derek could feel my interest, and he turned to look at me.

_Emily, I want you to be forewarned about this. I don't want you to get your hopes up only to have them crushed later on if I'm wrong._

"Just tell me," I whispered, nudging him in the arm with my shoulder. He glanced away for a moment, and I could almost feel my heart catch in my throat. What did that mean? My curiosity was still knocking feverishly in my brain, but now panic was starting to rise in my chest. What could he possibly tell me that had him so worried?

_I've been talking with my dad. About you._ I was pretty sure that my stomach dropped. I hoped that I wasn't going to puke, because that wouldn't be attractive in the least. Derek reached out to touch my face with his free hand, bringing my eyes up to him. _Don't think that. I have no idea what you're thinking for sure, but don't think it's something bad. Remember how I told you that once we ascend we can heal each other?_ I gave a slow nod, aware of the fact that he was still cupping my cheek. _Well, the only thing that we can't heal is hunger, thirst, and sleepiness._

He looked like he was waiting for me to pick up on something. I felt my eyebrows draw together as his golden hazel green eyes stared into my gray ones. What was he getting at? I skimmed the surface of his mind, but before I could find the answer for myself he said, _Your hearing, Emily. We think that it might be possible that I could heal you enough that you could get your hearing back._ His eyes softened. He had told me that he wasn't bothered by the fact that I was deaf, but he knew that I was. And I knew that he would do anything to make me happy. I had mixed emotions about the possibility of my hearing coming back. I was ecstatic that there was a theory that it might work. After eight years, I _wanted_ to hear again. But then again, if it didn't work, I would be crushed. If I hurt over the fact that the theory had been false, Derek would feel guilty and hurt along right beside me.

But there was a chance. A slim one, maybe, but it was _there._ All I had to do was wait a few more days, maybe even a week longer to find out for sure. Excitement ran through me. I was already looking forward to the ascension because it was going to be a huge marker in our lives together, but now there was something else depending on it, something that I had wanted for years. Something that had seemed impossible to get back.

"I promise that I won't get my hopes up." I said, holding up two fingers, scout's honor. Derek eyed me because he knew that it wasn't something that I could really promise. In fact, I had the slight feeling that I might have already broken it. If I got my hearing back… I would have a piece of my life back. I would be able to hear Derek outside of my mind; I would be able to hear his family. I would be able to hear my guitar when I picked it up. My heart pounded erratically at the thought. Derek moved his hand from my cheek to his chest, pressing down on it. I knew that it was something he did when my heart got a little out of control. He would rub it like he could calm it down that way.

_Emily…._ He let his mental voice wander off. I could see that he was debating on whether or not it was smart to tell me. He was worried that it wouldn't work and that I would be upset with him for bringing it up in the first place. He thought that maybe, if he hadn't told me, he wouldn't have had to worry about how I'd take it in the future, _if_ it didn't work. But he had wanted to tell me so bad. It was hard for him to keep a secret from me after all, and he thought that at one point in the future, I would have realized that he'd had a theory at this time and he didn't want me to be upset with him _then_. To him, it was sort of a lose-lose situation.

"Don't think like that," I whispered to him. "I'm not going to get mad at you over it. It's a theory. All we can do is hope it works." I wasn't just hoping, I was begging and praying. I wrapped my arms around one of his, effectively locking me to his side. "And if it doesn't work, we'll carry on with our lives. You can talk to me in my head all you want, and your family knows sign language now."

He rested his hand on my knee. _Here's to hoping it works._

"I'll toast to that," I replied.

# # #

Derek had decided that he was going to drop me off, preferably without Madison as our buffer. I could always tell my mom that he picked me up from Madison's and that we'd gone to dinner or something else completely mundane. She'd believe me, I was sure. That was partly why it hurt so much to lie to her. She trusted me blindly, believing that her daughter wouldn't utter a single lie to her.

We rolled up on the bike and Derek cut the engine, pushing down the kickstand with a boot. I swung my leg off first, still holding onto his waist as I stepped off. He waited until I was stable before getting off himself. He took off his helmet and tucked it under one arm, reaching out to remove my helmet from my head. I ran a hand over my hair, hoping that it didn't look awful. Derek just smiled at me. He wanted to walk me up to my door and give me one last dose of his touch before leaving me until morning. As we turned to head up to the front stoop, the lights flicked on and my mom opened the door.

I stuttered in my step, glancing at Derek from the corner of my eye. I could tell that he'd stiffened a little bit, but outwardly he probably looked completely at ease as we continued up the front walk. My mom eyed the helmets under our arms, peering over our shoulders to see his bike against the curb. I was still wearing a black leather jacket that was Madison's and was a little too short for me, and Derek had pulled out one that I didn't even know he had. It was hot, to say the least. I tried not to look bothered by the fact that my mom was going to give Derek the third degree. I told myself that he could handle it. He dragged me off to meet his entire family the day after we'd imprinted, for God's sake. Surely he could handle a few questions from my mother.

"Hi, mom," I said, all chipper. I was hoping that if I looked particularly happy then she would be a little softer on him. But I'd seen the look in her eyes when I told him that he "might" be_ the one_. Behind her slight tears was a look of determination that said that she was going to personally vet him out and make sure that he was a good guy. She wouldn't want anything to happen to me, and if that meant pinning Derek under a microscope then so be it. I had no trouble believing that she would go looking to see if he had a police record or if his GPA was higher than a three point oh. I reached out with my free hand and wrapped my fingers around Derek's, taking his calmness and hoping that I gave some to him in return. I also wanted my mom to get the gist that the two of us were more than friends. We hadn't really been over basic titles yet, which I still struggled over. I couldn't tell anyone but Aces that he was my significant. So what was he to my mom and the rest of the world? "You remember Derek, right?" I asked.

We were close enough that I could see her face in the porch light. "Yes," she said, a smile touching her lips. It was partly real, partly fake. "It's good to see you again."

"You too, ma'am," Derek replied. I only knew what he said because he sent a copy of his words reverberating through his mind, like he did when he was talking to me in a public place.

She gave him a slight smile before turning to face me. She spoke at the same time that she signed, so at least she wasn't trying to keep secrets from Derek. "How was your day with Madison, honey?" She asked. "Xavier certainly missed you at work." I caught the way that her eyes darted over to Derek when she mentioned Xavier, and I was pretty sure that he did, too. What was that all about?

I answered out loud, "It was pretty good. We just did some shopping. Madison took me to this great restaurant for breakfast burritos this morning." I told her, my fingers tightening around Derek's when I said it. My mom just gave me another small smile, and I knew that she was digging for more information, like, perhaps, how did I leave with Madison and come home with Derek? "Madison had to study for some test, so Derek and I went to dinner." I told her, "I hope that's okay."

"It's fine, I'm glad you had fun." She signed back, her smile broad. She turned to Derek and asked, "Do you want to come in for a little while? I made a plate full of cookies to take to the shop tomorrow, but I have more than enough to spare tonight."

_She wants to ask you questions._ I warned him mentally, doing my best not to look over at him. _If you want to save yourself, you might tell her that you have to head on home. Or, if you plan on staying, let's just say that I didn't warn you._

"That'd be great, Ms. Bryson," Derek said to her. She smiled and turned to step inside the house. He motioned for me to head in before him. I kept my fingers tightly knotted around his as I pulled him over the threshold and into the house. It wasn't the first time that he'd been inside the house, but this time it was more ominous. There was more weighing on this conversation. The first time, it had just been proof that he wasn't lying to me. This time would tell me whether or not my mom trusted him, and whether or not, in the future, she would accept it when I told her that Derek and I were moving in together or that Derek and I were getting married, not that he'd even asked me, but I'd seen it myself in a vision. Derek's fingers tightened around mine at that thought, and I could feel the blush climbing up my throat and staining my cheeks.

My mom had us sit down on the couch as she disappeared to the kitchen for a moment, coming back with a tray full of cookies. She paused to ask if we wanted anything to drink, which we both politely declined. She sat down in the middle of the couch, and I wondered if she'd done that on purpose to exile the two of us to the armchairs across the coffee table. I'd been hoping that she wouldn't take the couch. Now we couldn't touch unless we held hands over the table that separated the two chairs, and that would look awkward to my mom. At least I could still talk to him in my mind.

"So, Derek," my mom asked as I leaned forward to take a cookie. He waited until I took a bite of it before taking one for himself. "Do you know sign language?"

"Yes ma'am," Derek replied. His eyes darted over to me for a moment before he added, "My late grandfather was deaf. He lost his hearing in the war." He didn't specify which war, but it was believable. And it helped that Derek had referred to his grandfather as dead because his grandpa Barry was still alive and kicking, and his hearing was downright fantastic. If my mom had asked to meet his deaf grandfather, we'd be screwed.

"I'm sorry to hear that," my mom answered, a little flabbergasted. It never really helped to bring up a subject like a dead loved one within the first few questions. I couldn't help but wonder if Derek did that on purpose, to make her just as uneasy as I was about this whole thing.

"Grandpa's been gone for a few months," Derek replied, "he was very ill when I went to the deaf support group. That's where I met Emily." He added. Mentally, I praised him for remembering my lie and bringing it back up with such easiness that my mom would never second guess me. I could tell that he was trying to bring the conversation away from him personally and focus it on the two of us. He could be fairly honest with his family, but we couldn't tell her anything about Aces or imprints. He gave me a slight smile as he took a bite of his chocolate chip cookie.

"That's right, Emily mentioned that. How long have you two been friends now?" She signed the question so I could be privy to it, too. Her eyes darted in between us, hoping that we could agree on a number easily. She wouldn't be pleased if Derek said one number and I said another.

_Does five months sound good to you?_ Derek asked.

_Say five or six. At the same time. It'll totally throw her off._ I tried to hide my smile as he gave us a mental countdown. We both looked at each other and then back to my mom, saying simultaneously, "Five or six months." She paused for a second, giving the two of us a second once-over. To her knowledge, we couldn't coordinate an answer like that.

My mom continued to question Derek, asking him about his schooling (to her credit, she didn't look horrified by the thought that he'd decided to take a break off of college, since she'd been doing her best to find a way to let me take classes, going as far as to try and force me into online schools.) She seemed intrigued when Derek brought up his family's car company casually. I could see her eyebrows raise when she realized that he was saying that it was the Stanton family, and the Stanton family _only_, that owned Virtuous cars. My mom had never had one since they were fairly expensive luxury vehicles, but there were rumors that they were making some cars without all the bells and whistles, hoping to expand their horizons to middle class citizens. Derek mentioned his interest in music, which earned him an approval nod, and he mentioned his happily married parents and the rest of his family.

By the top of the hour, she looked fairly pleased with him. Derek, knowing that her interview session was drawing to a close, checked his cell phone for the time. "I really am sorry, Ms. Bryson, but it's getting late, and I'm sure the two of you are tired."

"Oh, of course," mom replied, jumping up to pick up the plate of leftover cookies. As she headed towards the kitchen, she paused and said, "It was good to see you again, Derek. Maybe you'd be interested in having dinner with us one evening? It would be great to meet your family. They sound great." She said. I could tell that she was still digging around for answers. Derek had already pretty much proved that he was at ease with parents, which let my mom feel a little more relaxed. She had always said that no good could come out of a boy that couldn't talk to his girlfriend's parents. Now she wanted to see if his family was really as good as I'd said it was.

"I'm sure they'll be pleased to meet you," Derek replied politely. "And it would be awesome to stay for dinner one night." He told her.

"I'll have Emily let you know when. Goodnight," she called out to us as I took him by the hand and led him out to the front porch. I picked up the helmet I wore as he tucked his under his arm. We stepped out onto the front porch and headed down towards the bike. The light from the front porch barely touched us, but if you were to lean against the front windows I was almost positive that you could see us, standing there together. He popped up the seat so I could store my helmet there. Setting his own helmet down on the seat, he reached out for my hands. Our fingers knotted together and he pulled me closer to him.

"Thanks for dealing with my mom," I whispered to him as he leaned down to press his face to mine.

_No problem._ He replied, the stubble on his cheek rubbing my skin. It was smooth one way and rough the other, which I'd found interesting. _She's your family. That means she's my family, too._ He drew back to look right in my eyes. I untangled my fingers from his and rested my hands on his broad chest. Underneath my palm, I could feel both of our hearts beating. It was so _weird_, but it was amazing, too, and I loved the feeling of them beating there, side by side. It sent chills down my spine. I wanted to kiss him, right then and there, and not care if I was making out with him on the sidewalk.

Interest flared in his eyes, but he didn't lean forward to meet me. _Your mom is watching out the window._

I reached up a little higher, grabbing a hold of the lapels of his leather jacket. "I don't care." I whispered to him as I stood up on my tiptoes to press my lips to his, pulling him closer to me with my hold on him. His hands immediately went to hold onto me, resting on either side of my hips. This time, I was the one that wanted to make the kiss more powerful. Instead of trying to hold control, Derek let me take the lead for a moment as my hands let go of his jacket and gripped his neck.

He was the one that stepped back first. I still stood on my toes, still holding onto him. He _had_ to keep holding onto me so I didn't lose my balance. He dropped his forehead against mine and smiled, his breath smelling like chocolate, just like his kiss had tasted. _I've got to go before I try to steal you away and take you with me._ He said, his voice low.

I laughed and tilted my chin up and give him another short, sweet kiss before letting go of him. "Come see me soon," I told him as he pulled the helmet over his head and climbed on the bike.

_You know I will. Go on inside and get some sleep. I'll be sure to bother you bright and early._

_See you then._ Derek started the bike, raised a hand in salute to me, and then headed down the street. I watched him go for a moment before turning and heading back up the front walk, taking the stairs two at a time. My lips still stung from my kiss with him, and the butterflies still rolled around in my stomach, like a million of them had been released at once.

Back inside the house, my mom was leaning against the back of the couch, her arms crossed over her chest, but she was smiling so broadly I would have thought that she'd just won a million dollars. She uncrossed her arms to sign, "I thought you and that boy had never kissed."

I shrugged, but I couldn't hide the smile that fought to the surface. "I told you mom, he might be the one."

**Wow, my chapters just keep getting longer and longer. I hope you guys aren't too upset by that. If you are, I'll do my best to try and cut down on them a little bit. I've just never been this far ahead with such a clear plan in mind.**

**I also wanted to mention the fact that in the last chapter of Defiance (spoiler, by the way) when Lynne's cheek gets cut, Maggie believes that Kyle might not be able to remove the scar. I've thought about this in terms of whether or not Derek would be able to heal something that's been "broken" in Emily for years. Keep in mind that this is an experimental story as well as a fanfiction. I have no idea how the rule really works with Aces since I did not create them. All we can do now is sit back and read and wonder: is Emily going to get her hearing back or not? Please, give me your hopes for that in a review. I'm interested in seeing how that would turn out.**

**As always, I thank you for taking the time to read this and ask you, very politely, I might add (haha) that you leave me a review in the box below. It's greatly appreciated! Peace (:**


	12. Long Overdue

**BreeTico - Lol, I like capital letters TOO! I'm glad you're excited about it; I was wondering whether readers would rather have her hearing returned or rather keep her deaf.**

**MaggieJacobson - Thank you very much! I'm glad that you don't really seem to mind if Emily gets her hearing back or not. I always hated it when authors did things that I didn't want them to do, sometimes enough to turn the entire story into a chore to read. Thank you for your continued support, and thanks for reviewing! (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_12: Long Overdue_

Today was the one week anniversary of the day that Derek and I imprinted. No, I'm not one of those crazy stalker girlfriends (we'd agreed two days ago that, to the rest of the world, we were now an exclusive couple; and no, we decided not to post it on our social networking site because we didn't want to draw attention) that counted down to minutes and days. But this was a big moment. Sometimes imprinted couples ascended around this time. Sometimes they already had. Sometimes they had just a few more days of waiting. And I couldn't help but wonder if it would be today.

In the days since Derek had been interrogated by my mother, we'd met each other every morning and spent the majority of the day together before he dropped me off at work and went to band practice, which was usually held in between five and eight. That is, if they actually _practiced_ during that time. Most of the time, they ended up just hanging out and watching football or finding college parties to go to. Derek had told me that he wasn't much of a partier, and Aces couldn't drink alcohol, so he usually tried to skip out on the parties or, when he was forced to go, he hung around in the corner and talked to old friends. I tried not to be jealous over the images of bimbos flirting with him that my mind instantly conjured up without any other prompts from him.

Xavier spent a lot of his free time in the back room. I could tell now that there were times when he was flirting with me. But he never failed to be gone when Derek dropped me off close to four on the dot. I think he was just doing his best not to see the two of us together. I didn't think my mom had said anything to him, because Xavier didn't seem like he knew that Derek and I were together. I probably should have told him, but I didn't have the heart to just tell him flat out that Derek and I were a couple. It would probably be too harsh, and I didn't want to make him mad at me. He was just starting to get back into the groove of being my friend. Like yesterday, he'd bought me my favorite cookie when he went to get his coffee and had it sitting on my desk when I walked in. I didn't know if it was worth it to make him mad just yet, and thankfully Derek agreed. He knew that he had me and that there was no chance that Xavier would get me to change my mind, but I could still tell that he wasn't too fond of my best friend. I think it was partly because Xavier was making me a little uncomfortable with his obvious flirting. He really, _really_ wanted me to see him differently now. It was just too late.

This morning, I had the early shift. I wouldn't be free until twelve. Derek had swooped by my window at seven to see me, but he'd had some sort of paintballing plans with his band until noon. He'd wanted to bail on them, but I'd told him that he needed to keep his friends, just like I was trying to keep mine. He'd just agreed and said that he would swing by at the end of my shift to pick me up and take me to lunch. It made me smile to see how he hated to leave me, but I didn't want us to become one of those couples that completely forgot about the rest of their friends. Derek and I would have each other for as long as we both lived. We could stand a few hours apart.

Now, nearly five hours, I was leaning against the desk, my eyes glued to the computer monitor. I'd played solitaire for about two hours, ignoring one of the other employees that my mom had hired. Mindy was a good worker, but she couldn't sign and she'd always acted like I would attack her if she spoke to me. So it was silence between us as she moved around and did her homework, attending to the few customers that came in randomly. Most of them came by after five, but since Xavier exclusively worked the late shift, Mindy was never around to see it. For the last two hours, I'd been hopelessly playing my mom's favorite bubble shooter game. It was addictive, but I was awful at it. I was slowly getting frustrated with it, and it didn't help that as the minutes ticked by and it got closer and closer to twelve, I was starting to get antsy.

The front door opened – I caught it on the small video screen – and I looked up, excitement bursting through me. I hated to admit it, but it fell when I realized that it was only Xavier. He was thirty minutes early. He seemed a little surprised when he caught me sitting behind the desk. He raised his coffee in salute. I noticed that he had a pastry bag in his hand, too. Any other day, and I'd be excited to see what sweet he had brought me. Today, though, I was a little downtrodden that he wasn't my significant. Mindy, sitting at one of the chairs she'd pulled up, glanced at the clock and then she sighed and looked back down at her homework. Xavier came right up to the counter and leaned against it, handing me my cookie. "My last class got cancelled today," he sighed before taking a sip of his drink. He slipped around the back and dropped his bag underneath the counter, next to my feet.

Xavier perched on the counter, his foot tapping restlessly against the bottom of my chair. Otherwise, I might have just ignored it. But I was so wound up that I actually turned and gave him a glare until he realized what he was doing and stopped. Xavier leaned over and pointed out where I should shoot the bubbles to try and get past the level. He was better at it than I was, and eventually I just gave him the mouse and leaned back in my seat while I watched the computer screen.

Fifteen minutes later, I thought I caught movement on the video screen at the door. I couldn't see the screen all that well, though, because Xavier's arm was blocking it. I glanced up over the counter, hope soaring in my chest. I already had a few aches and pains from not being able to touch him, and I was sure that after running around with his buddies and playing paintball, he was feeling some, too. The withdrawals were a pain, and they would never go away. The only way to keep them at bay is to be together constantly. I'd been worried that it would stamp us as the clingy type, but Derek didn't seem to mind when I stuck close to him and I certainly didn't mind when he stayed around me. If we were okay with it, who cares if we're clingy?

Mindy looked up just before I did. I saw her jaw go slack for a moment, and that alone strengthened conviction that it was Derek standing at the door. Sure enough, when my eyes met the man at the door, I recognized my significant. I pushed back from the desk so hard that I hit Xavier's legs, causing him to twitch the mouse and miss the winning shot. He gave me a dirty look as I stood up before his eyes traveled to the door where Derek stood. Mindy was watching me too as I skirted around the edge of the counter. Derek took a step towards me. I reached up and hugged him, pressing the palms of my hands to his neck. I didn't feel anything that said we were ascending, like the rush of chill and warmth, but it didn't stop me from being happy to see him. "Hi!" I exclaimed, my excitement immediately bursting out of me.

_Hi_, Derek said, his voice laughing in my mind. His hands rested lightly on my waist as I pulled away from him, feeling the calm was through me. He signed, "How was your day?"

As he moved, I noticed that there was a bright red mark on the side of his neck, at this collarbone. Without answering, I reached up and pulled down the collar of his shirt. He looked down at me as I caught sight of the bruise. Without thinking about it, I poked it. Hard. Derek winced. "Where did this come from?" I asked, mentally adding an apology.

He signed out, "Paintball," but in my mind he said, _Johnny has a pretty bad aim. He was going for the breastplate but hit my neck instead._

I let out a low whistle. The door opened behind Derek and I peered over his shoulder to see who it was. "Jack!" I exclaimed as he skirted around his brother. I hadn't expected to see him here. "Did you go paintballing, too?" I asked. I glanced over my shoulder to see Mindy watching the three of us with a slightly shocked expression, as if she couldn't believe that I knew these people. I guess it would seem kind of shocking. We'd never really tried to get to know each other. Whatever I knew about her was by things that my mom had said or what I'd observed of her at the shop. All she would get from me was that I was deaf and quiet, maybe a computer addict, and a book nerd. If I were in her place, I would hardly believe that I was standing there with two hot guys, either (Jack _is_ hot, all Stanton boys are, I think.)

"Hey girlfriend," Jack signed, grinning like an idiot. Derek immediately shoved him in the shoulder. Jack shoved back and gave me a wink. "Yep, I went paintballing. Johnny might suck, but I think his girlfriend was a lion hunter in her past life." He signed out, glancing around the shop as he did so. He wandered off towards the drums, even though I had the feeling that he had no idea how to actually play them. Derek shook his head and smiled down at me.

Without thinking about it, I raised up on my tiptoes to press a short kiss on his lips. Derek grinned down at me and looked towards his brother. I glanced up, too, and caught the horrified expression of Xavier. Just like that, my stomach dropped and my heart threatened to explode in my chest. How bad was it that when in the presence of my significant, I completely forgot about my best friend? Derek's hand immediately went to mine, his fingers wrapping around mine. I leaned against him, but it didn't completely erase the guilt. These past few days, Xavier had been trying so hard to get me to see him. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was dating Derek, so I just didn't say anything. Now, he'd caught me kissing my significant right in the middle of the store, in front of Jack and another employee. If I'd been in his place, I would have been embarrassed and miserable.

_I'm sorry, Emily. I forgot about him being there, too. But he'd have to find out sooner or later, and wouldn't you rather him find out now instead of later?_ Derek's voice was filled with concern. It just made me feel worse. Derek wasn't even _jealous_ over the fact that I was feeling bad about hurting another guy's feelings. He almost seemed sympathetic. While a part of me said that it was awesome that he was that comfortable in our relationship, a part of me wondered. I could feel the jealousy hiding within, but he wasn't _showing_ it because he knew that there was no threat.

_I guess. But I still feel really bad about it._

_Why don't you try to smooth things over? I don't really know how to help right now. I've never been in a situation like this before._

_Neither have I._ I sighed and let go of Derek's hand. "Xavier, you've met Derek, right?" I asked him. Xavier's face immediately wiped to a blank slate, his eyes heavily guarded, more so than they usually were.

He nodded, signing to me, "Yeah, just not by name." Out loud, he added, "What's up, man?" I could see him trying to play off whatever emotion that had swarmed over him. I swallowed hard and shot my best friend a forced smile. My eyes locked with Mindy's, and she seemed to get a little of what was going on. She gave me a look that said she was glad that she wasn't in my place.

Derek said something in return, and I pulled away from him, letting him know that I was going to say goodbye to my mom. I slipped past Xavier, trying to ignore the fact that he didn't even glance at me as I walked by him. I peered into the window of my mom's office and pushed open the door without knocking. She looked up with a smile, but it slowly faded off as I closed the door behind me. "Hi, mom," I said, trying to look upbeat despite the fact that I was worried that my best friend and my boyfriend hated each other and were in the same room together without me. Well, maybe hate was a strong word. On Derek's side.

"What's wrong?" My mom signed to me.

"Derek came by to pick me up for lunch." I replied. She looked at me like she didn't think that this was a very big deal. Whenever she asked me about Derek, I gushed about how awesome he was. I was trying to soften her up for the moment where I would tell her that I wanted to move out of her house and into Derek's. I was pretty sure that the Ace rules said that we couldn't live together unless we were married under our own roof. I knew that Victoria and Robert didn't care if I stayed with them and their son, but my mom would certainly think that something was out of the ordinary. She'd probably want to come and see where we were living. It was something that Derek and I still had to figure out. "And Xavier saw us kiss."

I knew that my mom knew more than she let on. The moment the words were out of my mouth, her eyes grew a little wider. Of course she knew that Xavier had been flirting with me all this time. Of course she knew about the few moments that the two of us had shared. They were shadowed by Derek, obviously, but they had existed. "Honey," my mom signed, "you can't let this worry you. You told Xavier that you were with Derek, didn't you?" My mom honestly liked Derek and had easily accepted the fact that we were dating. I just couldn't tell if it meant that she'd be as easily accepting of me moving out to live with him.

"Not exactly," I said, dropping my gaze. "I mean, I was going to, but Xavier just kept trying so hard and I didn't have the heart to break it to him like that." I explained, realizing that my words didn't really matter all that much right now. Either way, Xavier had had his feelings hurt.

"Emily, dear, I think it would have hurt his feelings any way you cut it." Mom signed out, almost as if she was reading my mind. With a sigh, she pushed out from her desk. "You really should have told him earlier. But what's done is done, and he'll have to get over it eventually. Either that or he can stop being your friend. But I don't think that he'll just stop being your friend all together." She stood up and put an arm over my shoulders.

She went to open the door and I sat there for a moment longer before getting up and following her. I knew that my heart was beating all out of whack. I could tell that Derek knew it too; he was rubbing his fist over his chest as my mom and I walked out of her office. I mentally sent him a thank you for letting me have a moment with my mom and not rushing to the door to make sure that I was alright. I knew that it must have been hard for him. He gave me a slight nod and I could tell that he was mentally sorting through my surface thoughts, trying to see if I was okay. Now, I could feel the jealousy more easily than before. He wasn't quite raging with it, but it was there. Was it wrong of me to feel a little burst of joy over it?

"Hi, Derek," my mom said pleasantly, looking around the room. Mindy looked like she'd gotten caught in the middle of a soap opera. I kind of felt like that was what was happening, too. Xavier had actually taken a seat in my chair. Like, he actually _sat_ in it. He never sat in that chair, to my knowledge. Not even when I wasn't there. He must've been _pissed._ Derek looked about two seconds from lurching to my side. I pressed a calming thought towards him and gained a little relief in seeing him sigh, his muscles relaxing ever so slightly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jack admiring the keyboards. I almost snorted out loud. Somehow, the rest of us, even Mindy, were on edge about this Xavier-Emily-Derek confrontation thing, and he'd just continued on his merry way, doing whatever he wanted. I had to admire him for that. At least, I think. He turned around and caught my eye. He gave me a slight reassuring wink and sidled up to Derek.

"Hi," he said. I could tell just by his facial expression that he was saying it as brightly as he could. "You must be Emily's mom."

My mom tensed for a second before looking in between Jack and Derek. Finally, she said, "Um, yes. Are you two…?"

"Brothers?" Jack finished for her. "Yes, ma'am. I'm Jack, the funny one." He held out his hand. My mom stepped forward to shake it, and in an instant I was so thankful that Jack was there. Just like his sisters had done, he'd become a buffer of sorts between my mom and the Ace world. I let out a breath that I hadn't been aware I was holding.

Derek clapped his brother on the shoulder and said, "Ms. Bryson, do you mind if we steal Emily away?" He gave her a big smile that, to her, probably looked real. I could see the strain underneath it, though. For being a guy that was as easy to read as an open book, he was doing really well at pretending like nothing supernatural was going on in our relationship.

"Go ahead," she said, giving me a slight shove towards Derek. I made a face at her at slipped behind the counter. Xavier hardly even moved his chair so I could pull my purse out from underneath the desk. As I stood up, I noticed the wrapper that my cookie had come in. I hadn't thrown it away yet. If it had eyes, I knew that it would be glaring at me. Xavier had brought me my favorite today. He'd been trying _so_ hard. I blinked, suddenly aware that tears were coming to my eyes. I wasn't a big crier. I didn't like to cry in front of other people because I didn't need them all staring at me like I was a raving lunatic. But, unfortunately, whenever I became highly bothered or frustrated, I either burst out into a fit of anger or I started to cry. It looked like it was going to be the latter this time around.

I tugged my purse out and pulled it over my shoulder, refusing to look up and meet my mom's gaze. If she caught the tears in my eyes, she would want to catch my arm and tell everyone that we needed to have a quick word. I didn't need that right now. Besides, the only person that was going to make me feel better was Derek. After I passed my mom, I looked up into his face. I could see that he was trying to hide a solemn expression. He didn't like it when I was upset, even if I had brought this upon myself. Even Jack looked a little lack luster as he waited for me to join them. Derek held out a hand to me and I took it gratefully. He waved over his shoulder as he pushed open the door, letting me step out first.

Derek had driven the classic car here. Jack scooted by me to go to the back door. At least he was giving me the shotgun seat without putting up a fight. I went to break apart from Derek I could go to my door but he didn't let go of me. Instead, he pulled me closer to him, turning me around to face him. He brought one hand up and smoothed his thumb across my cheek, just under my lashes. The move dislodged one of my tears. I could feel it sliding down. Derek swiped his thumb across it and leaned his forehead against mine. _I really am sorry, Emily. I don't want you to feel this way. But I have to be honest. I'm glad he knows that you're mine. If your friend and your mom weren't in there watching us, I would kiss you right this very moment. But you're going to have to put that on a rain check, okay? Just remember that I'm here for you, and that even though it hurts now, it'll go away soon._

I hiccup of a sob escaped me and Derek closed his eyes, his hand sliding down to touch the side of my neck. His touch didn't bring immediate comfort, and for that I was freaking out. I figured that I was just too worked up for it to work its wonders. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down just a little bit. When I started to feel that calming rush, I turned my face away from him, leaning my cheek against his chest. If I could hear, I was certain that I would be able to pick up our two hearts thumping together. Instead, I just rested my hand there, letting their constant beating calm me down. Derek wrapped his arm around me, embracing me in a hug. I felt his lips in my hair. After just a minute, I felt a little better, good enough that I could step away from him and go take my seat in the car. He let me go easily, his fingers tightening around me for just a moment before we went our separate ways.

I headed to my door and pulled it open, dropping down into the seat. Jack was leaning across the front bench seat, his arms dangling down. I could tell that he was trying to give us some privacy while also being bored out of his mind. He put a hand on my shoulder as I reached back for my seatbelt. I buckled up, and when I looked back into the shop, I could see that Mindy had returned to her homework, Xavier had disappeared, and my mom was leaning against the counter, watching the way her daughter's boyfriend comforted her.

# # #

Los Gorditos didn't only make great breakfast tacos. They had amazing burritos, too. I used a knife to cut through my giant burrito, dipping into the puddle of queso in the corner of my plate. Derek and I had squished into one side of the booth while Jack stretched out on the other side. I was pretty sure that he and Derek had eaten half of the restaurant's stock of food in the time that we were there.

Derek was telling me a story about how bad of a paintball player his band's bassist, Johnny, was. Jack would interject every now and then with an explanation of how hot Johnny's girlfriend was and how he didn't know how Johnny had gotten her to date him. I kept trying to remember what Johnny looked like in the pictures that I'd seen online, but my mind kept drawing up a blank. It didn't really matter all that much anyway, since Derek assured me that I would be meeting them, and soon.

When Jack finished his plate before me (which was a miracle, since his plate with three times bigger than mine) he leaned back in his seat watched the two of us with narrowed eyes. I think he was trying to see if he could tell when we were talking to each other in our minds. It quickly became a game as I ate my fill and passed the remainder of my plate to Derek. My significant plowed through the Spanish rice on my plate, mixing it together with the leftover queso and bits of burrito.

"So, Emily," Jack signed to me. I could tell by his expression that he was going to be teasing me. It seemed like that's almost all Jack ever did. And while at first I'd thought it was sort of annoying, I found myself liking it now. It meant that somewhere, Jack was around to create some sort of comic relief. He'd sort of been a lifesaver today, stepping in and introducing himself to my mom before anything could get worse between me and Xavier. "Madison and I have a bet going about when you're going to move in. She says that you're going to try to move in within the next week, and I said that it was going to be after that. Care to shine a little light on the discussion?"

I rolled my eyes despite the fact that I was blushing. I had actually been thinking about telling my mom about my decision to move in with Derek. It had actually seemed like a good idea to tell her when it had been this morning, before the whole thing with Xavier had happened. Now, I wondered if I _was_ moving too fast. I knew Aces were quick to get married after an imprint. By all standards, Derek and I were taking things slowly. It reminded me of my mom telling me that Xavier's feelings would have been hurt either way, whether I'd told him the day that we'd decided to let it go public to our friends and family that we were in a relationship or if I'd decided to wait and tell him later. I should have told him sooner until waiting until it exploded in my face. I wondered if the same principle applied to telling your mother that you wanted to move in with your boyfriend.

In my mind, Derek gave me a slight nudge. He was just letting me know that he'd heard my thoughts. He knew that I was a big thinker and that I usually liked to think through these sorts of things on my own. If I wanted help, I would ask. He was letting me know that my mind was open to him and he was getting the undertone of everything, if not my thoughts word by word. He was reminding me that I could either remain open or close up like a clam shell. I didn't care much for hiding information from him anymore, so I didn't bother to bring down the heavy steel door that lived as a blockade in my mind.

Looking up at Jack, I said, "I don't really know when yet." I picked up my glass of soda and bit down on the straw, chewing on the end nervously. I usually wasn't very big of a straw-chewer, but when my anxiety got the better of me I regressed to annoying nervous tics. Derek hip-checked me in the booth since his hands were still holding his eating utensils.

"_Yet?_" Jack repeated. Quickly, he signed out, "So you _are_ moving in?"

"Eventually, Jack," I said tiredly. Ever since I spent the night at "Madison's," my sleeping had been off. It was like once I had slept with Derek at my side it was nearly impossible to get any sleep without him there. I'd even tried to use one of my extra pillows, laying it beside me on my narrow bed as if it was him. But it didn't work. So my nights, which were already restless in the first place, were worse. I fell asleep late and always woke up feeling tired. I was starting to debate on whether or not I could come up with a reason to spend a _few_ nights at his house.

"How soon is eventually?" He signed out. I felt Derek deliver a swift kick to his brother's legs under the table. I found myself smiling despite the fact that I wanted to roll my eyes. When the two of them got into it, it was sort of like taking care of two overgrown children. Derek had always managed to keep a more mature air about him, but _still_. My significant was twenty-one and was still getting into scuffles with his nineteen-year-old brother. But I guess that was brotherhood. I had always been an only child. I had no idea what it was like to have siblings. I had a feeling that I was going to learn, though. Derek had told me a million times over that his family was my family now. I technically had four sibling-in-laws.

"Sometime before you die," I replied, not up to the task of finding something more sarcastic and creative. It didn't really matter all that much, since Jack cracked up anyway, catching the attention of one of the surrounding tables. I played with my straw while Derek finished eating my plate. He stacked it on top of his and then pushed it to the edge of the table. He let his now free hand rest on my thigh under the table. Under any other circumstances, I would be uncomfortable with a guy touching me so openly. But I didn't mind it when it was Derek. I think it was the imprint. It makes even the most stubborn teenage girls hopeless romantics.

_Don't worry about him. Make the right choice for you._

_What about the right choice for _us? I asked, looking over at him. I loved the fact that he cared about me enough to let me make these huge decisions in my life without pressing me to decide. He wasn't even trying to sway my decision. But I didn't want him to think that my happiness was above his own. I realized that while he thought he would be happy if I was happy, _I_ would only be fully happy if _he_ was happy. I wondered if that meant that we were at an impasse. _These types of decisions are things that we need to make together._ I told him, hoping that he'd see it.

He gave a slight nod as he leaned towards me, rolling onto one hip so he could pull his wallet out of his back pocket. He opened it up and slid out his one credit card just as the waiter came by with the black booklet. Derek slid the card into the slot and set it on the edge of the table. _All I want is for you to be at my side. You're trying to decide when to tell your mom that you want to move out. Personally, I'm going to be selfish and say that I want you as close to me as possible as soon as possible. But I get what's holding you back. She's your mom. You want your mom's blessing to move out. But you've already said that if it comes down to it, you'll go against her wishes. You already _know _what you want. You're just trying to muster up the courage to do it._

I looked up at him, shocked that he'd sent me that entire monologue. He looked at me like he was worried that he'd somehow offended me. I just couldn't believe that my significant was so wise. I mean, I knew he was smart, and I knew that he had to ability to dig in my head and pull out the deepest thoughts that I didn't even want to admit to myself. It felt so _good_ to have someone that could look at me and _know_ what I want and feed it back to me. I'd always been somewhat indecisive. I wondered if the universe knew that Derek would be able to help me with that when it paired us together. Probably. It's all fate and destiny, after all.

I leaned forward and pressed a kiss underneath his chin. He looked down at me with surprise. _Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?_

_Being so wise._ I replied.

I gave him a smirk and Jack suddenly waved his hands across the table. "Are you guys seriously doing that right now? Jesus, way to be extremely obvious." I rolled my eyes as the waiter came by and picked up the bill booklet. "So, what's the conversation about?" He asked, fake intrigue covering his face.

"I'm going to tell my mom that I want to move in with Derek." I replied, watching the condensation on my glass slowly slide down to the laminate-covered table.

Jack made a face, and I imagined that he groaned out loud. "Can't you wait for one more week so I can win the bet?" He begged.

"What are the stakes?" I asked.

"Fifty bucks," he clasped his hands together as if he was praying, sticking out his bottom lip and giving me big puppy dog eyes.

I laughed. "Do you even have fifty bucks to give to Madison?"

"You suck!" Jack exclaimed. Derek delivered another swift kick under the table.

# # #

_Are you sure that you want to do this?_ Derek asked me as we pulled up in front of the shop. Through the windows I could see my mom sitting behind the front counter. I couldn't even begin to imagine where Xavier was. Had my mom let him go home early? Was he hiding out in the back rooms? Had he quit his job because of me?

"Yeah," I said out loud, hitting the buckle on my seatbelt. "You said it yourself. I know what I want. I just have to go get it myself." He reached out to take my hand, weaving our fingers together. I looked up at him and gave him a slight smile. "You know, the day we imprinted, Xavier went and got some food at the Chinese place. I ate my fortune cookie and read the fortune inside. And even though I never believe in those stupid fortune cookies, this one told me that I needed to go to my own future, that it was waiting for me. It's what made me sit down and decide that I should just go for it with you, that I should stop asking so many questions and _accept_ the fact that you were mine forever and that I was yours." He looked surprised at the admission, either because I'd just told him that our relationship was loosely based off of a fortune cookie or because I'd just told him that I thought of him as mine and mine only. "And so I'm going to follow my stupid fortune and go in there and tell my mom that I'm moving out. It's in my future, I know it is. And it's what I want. So why not go for it?"

I glanced over my shoulder into the back seat. Jack had asked to be dropped off at the Stanton house. He apparently had a few night classes that he had to attend. I was honestly a little surprised that he'd let us know that he needed to get on home so he could get his books and stuff. Zach was the studious one in the family – that brother hadn't even said a single word to me throughout my imprint with Derek, though I didn't take offence because that's just the way he was – and I wouldn't pin Jack even close to his eldest brother on that front. Now, it was just the two of us. Thankfully, because I think Jack would try to fit in as many fortune cookie jokes as he could if he'd just heard me admit that out loud.

_You're amazing. You know that?_

"It helps to be told." I replied, scooping my purse up. "I'll keep my mind open so you can listen in. Be prepared to either make a break for it or come inside for some more interrogation. A kiss for good luck?" I asked, leaning closer to him.

A smile crossed his face as he leaned forward to meet me. Our lips met and my hand, on its own accord, rested against his chest for a moment before sliding up his neck and into his hair. My mouth opened underneath his, one of his arms snaking around my waist. I moved a little closer, my purse slipping from my shoulder and onto the seat in between us. Before I knew it, I was pretty much sitting on his lap, my hands on either side of his neck. One of his hands ran through my hair, following it all the way down my back. My good luck kiss had turned feverish in mere seconds. I pulled back to catch my breath, resting my forehead against his. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that the front windows were foggy. With a giggle, I reached out and drew a lopsided heart on the driver's side window.

"It's time to go face my mom," I said quietly, pressing my lips chastely to his before grabbing my purse and scooting all the way across the bench seat to the passenger door. I closed the door behind me, ignoring the fact that Derek was rolling down the windows a little bit so that they would clear up faster. I turned away from the front of the car. Inside, I could see Xavier leaning up against the storage room door. My mom was looking at him. It looked like they were talking about something. I found myself blushing as I turned to look back at the windows. They were dark enough that it was hard to see into them, but it wasn't too hard to see the way our breath had gathered on the windows. It probably wouldn't escape my mother's notice, and Xavier had probably seen it just as easily.

I pulled open the shop door and stepped inside, heading straight up to the front counter. I was slightly ashamed that I didn't even have the courage to look up and meet Xavier's eyes. But I could easily imagine that he was staring daggers into me as I leaned up against the desk and looked over the top of the counter at my mom. "Can we go to your office and talk?" I asked, focusing my eyes on a balled up slip of paper that was just barely hidden from view behind the computer monitor. My fortune cookie, the one that had prompted me to change my life.

My mom nodded, standing up from the desk. She said something to Xavier as she turned to her office door. I followed her inside and perched on one of the chairs across from her desk as she dropped into her office chair. Her eyes said that she knew that something major was coming, she just didn't know what. She leaned back in the seat, kicking off her shoes.

We both sat there for a minute, just looking at each other. I had half expected her to bring up the foggy windows or ask me what was on my mind but she didn't. She was waiting for me to speak first. "Mom," I said, pausing to swallow hard. I could feel sweat gathering on my skin, my heart thumping in my chest. But I could also feel Derek peeking onto the scene from inside my mind, keeping a watchful eye over me. "I want to tell you that… well Derek, he…." I shook my head, closing my eyes and focusing on my words. When I opened them, my mom was leaning forward in her seat. She looked a little freaked out. Finally, I just blurted. "Derek asked me if I wanted to move in with and I… I really do want to."

My mom leaned back in her chair. "Thank God!" She exclaimed. She didn't even sign it. I felt like my face was one big question mark. I was getting the same feeling from Derek. We were both confused. She looked at me, halfway caught in between a smile and a shake of her head. "I was worried you were going to tell me that you were pregnant or something."

"Mom! Jesus!" I exclaimed. "Do you really think that I'd do that?" I asked, thoroughly shocked. I was actually kind of hurt that she would be worried that I would tell her that. Didn't she know her own daughter? Her _only_ daughter?

"No," she shook her head, signing out the words to me, "but honey, I can see how serious you are about this boy. This isn't some crush, not for you. This is very serious." When I looked into her eyes I could see that they were filling with tears. "I knew that this day would come, you know. The day that you would find some boy who you fell completely in love with, who you wanted to jump feet first into life with. I knew it would happen because that's just what I did with your father. And honey, I want to tell you that you need to step back and look at this logically, but I didn't. I just followed my heart and went on the ride, and while it was awesome, it ended. I want to tell you that you need to give this relationship more time and see where it goes, but… I can _see_ the love that's there." As she said it, I saw a tear slide down her cheek. She reached out on her desk and tugged a tissue out of the box, dabbing at her eyes with it.

"I remember the days when your father and I were your age. Everything was fun and carefree and we were so in love that it didn't even matter." She told me, crumpling up the tissue in her hands and setting it down on the desk so she could continue to sign to me. "I've been watching you with him. That boy is so protective of you that he's more like a guard dog. He's worse than a mama bear. And you were right when you said that he wears his heart on his sleeve. I can see how much he cares for you in his eyes. He looks like he's content with just holding your hand, but don't think that I didn't see the way those car windows fogged up a minute ago." I gave her a sheepish smile and she laughed, pausing to dab at her eyes again. "But I think watching him with you this morning is what really sealed the deal, Emily. You were upset about Xavier, I could see that. And he just took your hand and led you outside. He could have been jealous over the fact that you were upset about your male best friend, but he wasn't. I saw him wipe away your tears and hug you until you felt like you could continue on. He's not in it for himself. He's in it for _you_."

I could feel tears coming to my eyes as she said the words. Derek wasn't just hanging around because his imprint said that he needed me. He wanted _me_. She was right. He could have been horribly mean and just touch me so that he didn't have to suffer through withdrawals, but he went out of his way to make sure that he was close to me, that he was ready to protect me in case I needed him. Derek was my anchor to the world. It sort of felt like if I didn't have him I wouldn't be able to ever breathe again.

"Emily, my motherly side of me says that I should tell you no, that you're not allowed to move anywhere with your boyfriend. But you're nineteen. You're legally an adult, and you can do whatever you want. I can't hold you back, just like my mother couldn't hold me back. But I want you to know that you don't have to be embarrassed if this doesn't work out between you two. I should know that even the best of love takes work and may not last forever. So you do what you think is right for you. My only requirement is that I make sure that this apartment of his isn't condemned."

"He doesn't live in an apartment." I blurted out. "His parents own the house."

"You're going to move into your boyfriend's parent's house?" Mom asked, her eyebrows drawing together.

I bit down on my lip and thought about it for a moment before finally sighing. "Well, technically. Derek's older brother and sister still live there. It's sort of like a… compound. You know, like a giant house that's for roomies. Like an apartment. They share a kitchen and living room but they all have their own rooms." I said, knowing that my explanation sounded ridiculous.

"Honey, I hate to break it to you, but that sounds like his parents' house." Mom signed the words slowly, as if she were emphasizing every word.

I rolled my eyes and said, "I know. It's sort of like his parents have these weird rules. They're perfectly fine with me moving in, and I'm totally willing to help pay for groceries and clean the house and stuff. I think Derek and I might start searching for apartments." I still wasn't sure on whether or not the Aces had rules against living in the same house together. Then again, it didn't really sound like the Ace's council rules mattered all that much anymore, since the Visionary was changing things around. Perhaps Derek and I could just slide by. Even if we didn't legally get married, after a certain number of years living together we were considered common law married, right? I wasn't for sure. I never really had any reason to look into it.

My mom shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I feel like I should have discussion with Derek's parents about this." She signed.

"Invite them over to dinner." I said. "You told Derek the other day that we should have him over for dinner." I added it a little awkwardly, hoping that she didn't notice how nervous I was. She'd basically told me that while she wasn't jumping for joy over the fact that I wanted to move in with Derek, she wasn't going to try to stop me because she knew that she couldn't.

"Okay, I will. But promise me that you'll hold off on this moving in for a few days, until after I've hashed out this whole thing with his parents." She looked a little nervous as she said it. At least I wasn't the only one.

"Scout's honor," I said, holding up two fingers and saluting off my forehead. I wasn't even sure if that was a real scout's honor, but whatever. I felt a smile break out across my face.

Mom held up a hand. "Don't get so excited just yet. I'm your legal guardian. Or, at least, I _was_ until you turned eighteen. I just finished telling you that you're old enough to make your own decisions without me breathing down your neck. But there is someone that is probably going to think that he gets a say in what you're planning to do."

I felt my eyebrows draw together. "Who?"

She looked a little incredulous that I hadn't figured it out for myself. Shaking her head, she signed, "Your father."

**I set out with the goal of making this a regular-length chapter. And I failed miserably. This chapter has topped a new high for me at a little over 8,000 words. I know, lengthy. Please do forgive me. As I said in the last chapter, I've just go **_**so much**_** that I want to get out in this chapter, and I can't bring myself to delete any of my descriptive words. I hope you all understand and forgive me for the long chapters (and maybe, you even love them!)**

**You guys know the drill. Please leave me a review, and I truly am thankful that you took the time to read this (especially since they're getting so long. Sheesh.) Peace (:**


	13. Daddy's Little Girl

**BreeTico – Emily's father is a complex character. When she was younger, he was a lot of fun, the joker of the group, someone that was overall the most personable person you could ever meet. But as he grew older, he matured and realized that there are times when he needs to be serious. As for Jack, I absolutely **_**love**_** Jack. I hadn't planned on him or Madison becoming a very prominent character, but the two of them have managed to steal my heart in a way that I honestly had not expected.**

**Maggie – Well I'm glad you like the length! This one is shorter than the others, but it's still over the 6,000 word mark. (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_13: Daddy's Little Girl_

When I was a kid, my dad and I were close. I mean, I was close to both of my parents, but it was my dad that I sought out to play games with, and it was my dad that tried to teach me the basic lessons of life. My mom, of course, was there to teach me how to cook and clean, how to do makeup and nails, how to live life to the fullest and how to enjoy a good book. But my dad… my dad was the one that taught me how to have fun. He was sort of like Derek and Jack, an overgrown kid. It was only after I was older that my dad started working more than he had fun.

I sat with Derek at a small four-top table in an Italian restaurant, where my dad often went for business meetings. After my mom had told me that she wasn't going to fight me on my notion to move in with Derek, I sprinted out to the car and flung open his side door. He knew what she'd said, but I'd still managed to startle him by coming to his door first. He already had his seatbelt undone, his feet stretched out on the bench seat. I had just reached into the car and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him up to kiss me. It was sort of bad, but I didn't care if Xavier was sitting there and watching it anymore. He didn't _have_ to look. And after _that_, I called up my dad and set up lunch plans for the next day. Which was now today.

I played with my silverware, wrapped up in a cloth napkin. The restaurant was a little fancier than I was used to. Wine glasses were sitting out on the table when we sat down. They'd been removed when I'd ordered a soda and Derek echoed my sentiment. He had told me that alcohol was basically like a poison to Aces. It made you completely out of it, dizzy and loud and confused before causing you to collapse. Even a little sip of wine would make us so sick that we could die. Derek had even told me that the Visionary, a young girl named Maggie, had been poisoned at the reunification by a Watson. Derek had made the reunification, which I wouldn't attend until next summer, sound awesome with games and parties and dances. But it sounded like this past year's had been something else altogether. It sort of made me glad that I hadn't met Derek until after it was over.

_Calm down,_ Derek said softly, his voice whispering through my mind. I continued to fidget with my plate, arranging it right in front of me even though it would have to be pushed to the side when our actual meal came. _I'm sure everything will be just fine._ The waitress came by, putting down a basket of garlic bread sticks. My stomach rumbled, but I couldn't find it in me to reach out for one of them. The waitress lingered at the table, asking if we needed anything. I had the feeling that she was just checking Derek out. It didn't help my anxiety at all. I found myself looking up to give her a glare at the same time that Derek put his arm over the back of my chair.

_I just don't know how he'll take it. When I was a kid he told me that when I started dating, he'd be sitting on the front porch waiting for me to get home with a shotgun. He doesn't have a shotgun, but you get what I mean._ I told him, reaching over to straighten his silverware on the table. He just watched my hand, completely unbothered by the fact that I was invading his personal space or that I was obsessively moving things around the table. I had never really had any OCD tendencies, but when I was stressed or anxious I found myself straightening things to keep my hands and mind busy. Derek understood the weird habit and he let me continue to do it as he listened to my inner rant. _And with my mom telling me that I needed to really think about my dad in this… it doesn't help._ I added, twisting his glass of soda. I felt like everyone was watching us even though I knew that probably wasn't the case. I would be lying if I said that the few girls nearby didn't steal glances at Derek, though. I wondered if they realized that Derek and I were together or if they were just writing me off as a friend or maybe even a sister. It was actually kind of disturbing.

_Emily, if your dad says that he hates me and he forbids you to move in with me, what are you going to tell him?_

I glanced over at him, shocked. He was supposed to be helping me feel better, not bringing up the worst case scenario. I swallowed hard as I sent him my answer. _I'd tell him that he'd have to get over it, because we're forever and I'm moving in with you._ My eyebrows drew together as I looked over at him, wondering what good that had done.

_There's your answer. You've already made up your mind._ I looked away from my plate to meet his gaze. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my cheek. _You're not indecisive like you think you are. You're just worried that your decisions will end up hurting someone's feelings. You can't please everyone. You need to think about what's best for you. That's the beauty of having choices._

I sighed and massaged my temples, closing my eyes. _Okay, you're right. I just don't want to make my parents hate me._

_Your mom's already cool with it. It's just your dad, now. And honestly, Emily, I think if you just let him know exactly how you're feeling, he'll let you go. I know I haven't met him yet, but he's probably not as unwilling to let go of you as your mom was._

I glanced up to tell him that I wasn't so sure about that when I caught sight of someone familiar in the doorway to the restaurant. My dad had light brown hair and was a little on the heavier side. I wasn't sure when it had happened, but his hairline was starting to recede. He wore a gray suit since he was going right back to work after this. I couldn't see them from here, but I knew that he had a set of stormy gray eyes that matched mine almost perfectly. He scanned the room, and when he noticed me a huge smile spread across his face. He seemed to only see me as he nodded to the hostess at the front podium and moved towards us. It was only when he was halfway to the table did he seem to notice Derek sitting beside me. He hesitated in his step before continuing forward. I stood up to greet him. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a quick squeeze before releasing me, like he always did. Derek stood up and I watched the two of them exchange a very business-like handshake.

"Dad, this is Derek, my boyfriend. He's the one that I wanted you to meet. Derek, this is my dad, Charlie Bryson." I said, giving a quick gesture in between them. I nervously smoothed out the skirt of my dress, feeling a little off. I had pulled out a sundress for the occasion, knowing that the Italian place was one of my dad's favorites and was fancier than the places I was used to frequenting. Derek had pulled out some of his dark jeans and crisp, dark shirt. I was starting to think that he only had the same kind of shirt in different colors. They said something to each other as we took our seats.

I wasn't sure who my dad thought that he was going to see when I told him that I wanted him to come to lunch and meet someone. He obviously didn't expect to see someone like Derek. His eyes darted in between us almost nonchalantly, but I'd known my dad long enough to tell when he was really taking in his surroundings, hoping that he could get some information from them. I felt my significant's hand drift to my knee. He pulled away for a brief second when his hand met skin instead of the denim of my jeans, but I reached out and weaved our fingers together, taking a deep breath.

The waiter came by to take my dad's drink and our meal orders, and while we waited we talked. It had been a little over two weeks since I'd seen my father, since I'd always gone to go see him whenever I'd wanted to. Over the years, I went to go see him less and less, since my schoolwork and job got in the way. He worked Monday through Friday and often throughout the weekends, so there were few days where the two of us were free. I didn't have much to say about what had happened; I never did. It was just life as normal, for the most part. I couldn't tell him about the imprint or the fact that I'd learned all about Aces. Derek and I told him the same story we'd told mom on how we'd met, and then my dad decided to question Derek.

My mom had asked Derek questions about himself, his life, and his family. She had wanted to get to know him, to make sure that he was a good guy and that he was a match for me. My dad, however, asked him business-like questions. The moment Derek mentioned the Virtuous car line, my dad seemed impressed. I had no idea if my mom had called to tell him that I was in a serious relationship with someone. I didn't figure that she had. Their divorce hadn't been all that easy. There were a lot of pent-up emotions on both sides. My mom and my dad were cordial to each other at best, but they weren't liable to call each other for kicks and giggles. That meant that he must have figured it out by himself. He wanted to make sure that Derek was in the long-run able to care for me financially. At least he was thinking long-run, because that's definitely what was ahead of us.

In truth, my dad looked sort of uncomfortable. I could understand why. My mom was much more interested in the fact that I was in a relationship. My dad didn't seem to think all that much of it. He'd known, just like my mom, that one day I would find someone who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Derek was right; my dad wasn't holding on to me as tightly as my mother had been. But then again, I hadn't told him that I was planning to move out, yet.

I picked through my meal while my dad and Derek continued to talk. I had my mind open to Derek, so I got the rundown on what they talked about, but I didn't say much. It was sort of like they were… bonding. But I could tell just by looking at him that my dad wasn't getting the whole reason behind this meeting. He probably figured that the only reason that I would be bringing around a boy for him to meet was if I was getting serious with him. He just didn't know _how_ serious. My dad was being friendly, but he still was on edge. I wondered if he looked like that at work when people brought big decisions to his desk – like one wrong move could bring something tearing down, like he was suspicious and slightly uncomfortable.

The entire undertone of the meal was a slightly awkward, business-like. Derek seemed a little tense throughout the whole thing. I was completely right when I said that my dad was a whole other level of interrogation skills. Derek had been completely at ease when he was talking to my mother, but with my dad, it was totally different. I kept my leg pressed up against Derek's throughout our meal and answered questions when they were directed at me. I sort of… observed the entire thing, trying to read my father. He was like Xavier; it was hard to get anything _real_ from them. He had a poker face that would put professionals to shame.

When the waiter came around with the bill, Derek pulled out his card and told my dad not to worry about it. The two of them bantered back and forth, but my significant finally won out. He slipped his card into the slot and set it on the edge of the table. That alone piqued my dad's interest even more than the fact that one day, Derek would become part owner of Virtuous cars. I was sure that my dad was chalking it up to a piece of his character.

"It was very nice meeting you, Derek," my dad said as he pushed the chair underneath the table. He turned to look at me and gave me another hug, stepping back to sign, "And it's good to see you, too. You were pretty quiet. Do you have something on your mind?"

Pulling my purse up onto my shoulder, I looped my arm around my dad's and said, "I'll walk you to your car." _I'll leave my mind open to you and I'll meet you at the car, okay?_

Derek gave me a slight nod. _Call me if you need me._ He said, following us to the front door. We split up as my dad and I walked out to his car. I saw Derek head towards the classic car, which Jack had told me was a Trans Am from the seventies. I just figured that it meant that the car was worth a good amount of money, but since I wasn't a car buff I had no clue.

When we reached my dad's silver Mercedes, he gently pulled his arm away from me and signed, "What is it that you really wanted to tell me?" He asked. He looked like he thought I was going to tell him that Derek was secretly a monster. He actually looked like he thought that maybe I had gotten myself into a bad situation and was only hoping that my father could help me out. But there was a part of him, I could tell, that was expecting something less extreme. I chalked it up to his fatherly protection.

I gave a small, sheepish smile. It apparently put him at ease, since the set of his shoulders relaxed a little bit. I _wasn't_ going to be telling him that Derek was some hateful guy. He was the complete opposite of that. "How'd you know?"

"You're my little girl. I always know when you're up to something." He said, giving me a smile that had been virtually absent throughout the meal. Sure, he'd smiled during the meal, but it had been his business smile, saying that he was happy, he was likeable, but no, he was not actually smiling on the inside. This was the smile that I remembered.

I leaned against the side of the car as my dad dug in his pocket for the keys. He was always putting his keys in a different pocket, causing him to have to search for them. You would think that a man who was the CEO of a booming company could manage to remember where his keys were. But according to my mom, he'd done the same thing in high school. "Dad," I started, taking a deep breath, "I'm moving out of mom's house. I'm going to live with Derek."

Right when I said it, he'd just managed to get his keys out of one of his pockets. The shock of my words made him drop his keys onto the pavement. He picked them up and fiddled with them for a second, refusing to meet my gaze. He cleared his throat as he hit the remote for the keyless entry. "Is that so?" He asked, his hand resting on the driver's door while he gathered his thoughts. "What does your mom think about this?" The way his expression changed when he signed that implied that he didn't think I'd already talked to my mom about it.

"She's accepted it. I'm nineteen, dad. I can legally do whatever I want. I just wanted to let you know because… well, I'm doing it. Even if you tell me that I can't, I _am_. But I don't want you to be mad at me or anything." I admitted. "I don't want to not talk to you guys anymore."

Dad tossed his keys onto the driver's seat before holding his arms out to me, beckoning me for a hug. I walked into it, hugging him back. It was the warm bear-hug dad type, but it didn't make me feel much better. Derek was the only one who could make me feel like the world was set away for a moment or two, so I could have a little space to myself. When he pulled back he signed, "Emily, I'd never stop talking to you just because you decided to move forward with your life. I don't always have to like your decisions, but you're right. I legally cannot control you. All I can do is tell you to always make sure you're objective with some of your decisions. Don't force something that isn't there, but you have to work at a relationship." He glanced over my shoulder, probably to where Derek stood at the Trans Am. "Obviously, your mom likes him enough to not call me and tell me to shoot you two down. I've always considered her a good judge of character. But you better not be doing this just because it's a chance to play house. This is serious, Emily. This isn't a game or a joke. This is your life, and one bad decision can change it drastically."

I smiled at him. It was just like him to give me flat out answers. If there were statistics about the rate of nineteen-year-olds that move in with their slightly older boyfriends, he would probably be spouting numbers at me, as if this was a business deal. He'd always been like that. Sports and numbers were his specialties. "I'm dead serious about this," I told him.

He nodded, his gaze darting to Derek across the parking lot for a moment before falling back on me. He didn't seem bothered in the least, and he was nowhere near tears. It had been easier to tell him than it had been to tell my mother. She'd been so sure that my dad would take this piece of information harder than she would. I couldn't help but wonder if she was hoping that my dad would try to talk me out of it. Or maybe she just knew that he would be blunt and honest with me. If my dad thought there was anything strange about Derek, he wouldn't hesitate to tell me. I figured that meant that my significant had sort of checked out in my dad's eyes. "You know, you've always been my little girl, even now. It's kind of bittersweet to see you make such an adult decision on your own."

I smiled, feeling those tears swarm to the surface, making my vision blurry. I gave him a nod, "I know. But I'll always be your little girl." I hugged him one last time before we said our goodbyes, pulling away and turning towards Derek and the Trans Am. I started covering the distance in between the two cars, and I couldn't help but think about the fact that this was sort of like a physical representation of me leaving behind my past and greeting my future. I paused about halfway, turning to give my father a wave. He raised his hand in response, and I hurried the rest of the way to Derek.

# # #

"Mom," I said, nudging her as she flitted around the kitchen. I'd had lunch with my dad only yesterday, but it didn't really seem to matter much. It was like all of my days had been lengthened, but they sped by so quickly that I felt like if I blinked they'd be gone. Today marked one week and two days for me and Derek on our imprint. It also marked the day that Derek's family was going to come over for dinner. Assuming that all went well tonight, it was going to be my last night at the place I'd called my home for years. My mom had put Xavier in charge of the shop for the night – he still wasn't talking to me – and she'd been running around for over an hour. We'd decided on making hamburgers. My mom had been shocked when I'd suggested it, but they were Derek's absolute favorite (he was a true American food junkie) and the other Stanton family members liked them well enough. "You might want to go get the grill started. They're supposed to be here in like, two minutes."

She threw her hands up in the air and rushed to the sink, using her wrist to turn on the faucet. She'd wanted to get all dressed up with her best jewelry and an extra hint of makeup, but I told her not to worry about it. I'd just pulled my hair back into a peppy ponytail and had even pinned my bangs back away from my face. But had added more makeup than I usually wore, smoothing powder over my skin and lining my eyes with a dark pencil. My mascara made my eyelashes look three times longer, and I'd taken a gray shadow palette and given myself what I considered a sexy smoky eye. I didn't have a lot by way of jewelry, so I just slipped on my grandmother's ring on my right fourth finger and a fake diamond bracelet that my mom had given me on my fifteenth birthday. My mom had given me a you're-a-hypocrite glare when I came down the stairs, but she didn't say anything about me trying to look good.

I'd settled for slicing tomatoes and rearranging the buffet of burger toppings on their plates, covering them all with clear plastic wrap. I had just finished putting up the leftover vegetables when I heard Derek's voice echoing through my mind. _We just pulled up._ I hurried to put everything else up before bounding to the front door. My mom was still outside, the back door propped open, as she tried to light the grill. She'd never really had any luck with it, but I had to give her props for trying. I could see that she'd tried to make the covered back patio look a little more party-like, with the cushions on the benches freshly washed and the huge glass table cleared off.

I pulled open the front door and was greeted with the entire Stanton family heading up the walkway. My mom had given me a slightly surprised look when I said that all seven members of the Stanton family were coming, but then she'd smiled and continued on. I could see that Derek had parked his bike at the curb. It looked like everyone else had ridden here in the Trans Am. I left the door opened and hurried down the front steps. My mom had changed my shift to the morning so that I could help with cleaning up and getting dinner ready. I hadn't seen Derek since he stopped by my window around seven. It had been nearly twelve hours. I never knew that I could miss someone so much so quickly.

He started walking towards me, but as we drew closer I was pretty sure that I saw him pick up the pace. I put my hands on his chest and vaulted up on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. His free arm (the other was holding onto his bike helmet) went around me to hold me against him. I could feel his smile against my lips as I fell back onto my feet. _You look nice_. He said. I laughed. Derek had proved to be extremely wise for his years and fairly dependent on physical touch, but his romance skills were pretty low. I don't think he knew how to give a girl a real compliment about how she looked, at least, not with all those extra words. He was pretty flat out with what he said. I think that was partly what made him so charming.

"Yeah? You think so?" I asked, unable to hide my smile. Derek reached out and gave a gentle tug on the end of my ponytail as his family neared. I switched my words to my mind as I continued, _Well, you don't look so bad yourself._

_Yeah?_ He echoed, _You think so?_ I snorted in laughter and gave him a playful slap on his chest. I looked over his shoulder just in time to see Victoria walking up. She had actually gotten a little dressed up for the occasion, her dress navy blue with a slightly plunging neckline. She'd even put on heels and had twisted her slight curls into a tasteful side ponytail. I abandoned Derek for just a moment to give her a brief hug. Instead of feeling awkward, like I imagined, it was just like hugging my own mom. I even slung an arm around Robert. Jack, who had lingered near the very back of the group, hurried forward, signing "Free hugs?"

I laughed as he went to give me a hug. But instead of a quick embrace, he draped his arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. My imprint flared up inside, telling me that it didn't like me hugging any other men my age, even my significant's brother. Jack made a big show out of dragging me away from Derek even though I reached out for him. I laughed as Jack waggled his eyebrows at us before I ducked underneath his arm. Victoria was giving her youngest son a knock-it-off look, but even she couldn't hide her smile at our antics. I rushed to Derek's side, grabbing a hold of the leather jacket he'd worn over his typical shirt. I turned to stick my tongue out at Jack and he sneered back.

It looked like everyone was laughing. Even Derek, who had looked like he was halfway amused, halfway annoyed, was grinning at me as I let go of his jacket. I took a hold of his helmet and laced my fingers with his. As I turned to face the house, I noticed my mom standing at the door. She had apparently called out a hello to the crowd gathered on our front lawn. I continued on as mom stepped aside to let everyone in. I made quick introductions, starting with Robert and ending with Madison.

My mom's eyebrows shot up and she gave me a look when I mentioned Derek's youngest sister. I'd forgotten all about the fact that Derek and I had used Madison as a decoy for me to spend the night over at his house. I just gave her a brilliant smile across the way. She looked like she was going to want to have a word with me for a second, but she finally just shook her head, unable to hide the tiny smile gracing her face. I was honestly kind of shocked that she didn't get even a _little bit_ mad at me. She was either honoring the fact that I was an adult capable of my own decisions or she was blinded by the tornado that was Jack and Madison. Separated, the two of them were charming and funny. Together, it was like having a comedy show in my living room.

_I've talked to my parents about the plan. They're going to try to smooth things over with your mom. You know, tell her that they can't wait for you to move in and that she's welcome to visit any time and stuff._ His words echoed through my mind as we slipped out onto the back porch. Carissa had showed up with the family, attached to her cell phone like always. It looked like Madison was doing her best to keep her older sister entertained, but I had the distinct feeling that in a tight-knit family, Carissa was one that would really rather be left alone with a television set. Zach had showed up too, and he was just as quiet as he was when he had a book in front of him. He and Carissa took a seat on the couch together after giving my mom a few seconds of their time.

My mom excused herself to put the burgers on the grill. We all trampled out into the backyard, relishing the last bits of the summer weather in Chicago. I had handed Carissa the TV remote and told her to watch whatever, knowing that she was probably going to be more comfortable watching some sort of drama series, or maybe even one of the movies that was playing. She gave me a smile that I hadn't been expecting from her. Note to self: the key into Carissa's heart was a healthy dose of fashion knowledge and electronics.

While my mom talked to Robert and Victoria, Derek and I went to sit on the hammock I'd talked my mom into buying when I was thirteen. It was strung up between two trees which gave it relative shade. During the day, I would lie out there and read a book for hours on end. For now, though, it made the perfect place for us to swing back and forth. I'd always been a little embarrassed when my mom caught me with Derek. But we were _moving in_ together tomorrow. I figured that she already knew that I'd slept in Derek's room. She probably figured that out the moment I introduced her to Madison. And honestly, according to my mom, it had been the way that Derek and I rotated around each other with tenderness that had really sold her on our relationship. So I guess I _didn't_ really care anymore if she saw me with him.

We sat down on the hammock sideways so that we faced the house instead of the sky. Jack and Madison dragged their chairs up across the grass so we could all sit there together and chat while Robert and Victoria worked their magic on my mother. Derek draped his arm over my shoulders as I leaned against him. We talked a little bit about school for Madison and Jack. Madison was telling us funny stories about some of her more incompetent teachers. Jack and Derek threw in their own stories with the same teachers. It really made me miss the fact that I'd skipped out on high school and gone the homeschooled route.

My mom called out to us when the burgers were ready. We all sat around the outdoor table, both ends chatting about different things. When we finished our meals, my mom brought out a plate of cookies that she'd popped in right after we got home from the morning shift at work. We all sat there for a while longer. It was nice to see my mom completely at ease with Victoria and Robert. In fact, it looked like they were actually _friends_. I found myself wondering if Derek's parents were exactly like him, just like the rest of his family, flat out _charming_.

I decided that they just _had_ to be.

# # #

Everyone but Derek had already left. My mom tried to hide her smile when I said that he was going to be hanging around for a little while longer. I could almost hear what she was thinking – that I was going to be living with him as of tomorrow (it was my big move-out day) so we didn't need to sit there and cling to each other like we had been all night. But she didn't say anything to me, and Derek and I slipped back outside to lie down on the hammock. Derek let one foot hang over the edge, making the whole thing swing back and forth as I snuggled into his side.

_I'm so tired_, I told him as my eyes fluttered closed. Derek's fingers ran repeatedly through my hair, sending shivers down my spine. _Ever since I spent the night at your house, I can't sleep in my room. It feels so lonely._ One of my hands rested on his stomach, which was strong and muscled. I let my arm slide across him as his fingers tickled the back of my neck.

_I know what you mean._ He said back. His chest rose and fell under my cheek as he breathed. _I mean, I was never much of a restless sleeper,_ he teased, _but now it's nearly impossible._ _I can't wait for you to move into tomorrow._

I smiled. _Me neither._

We sat there, rocking back and forth in relative silence. I kept my eyes closed, determined to rest my eyes for just a little while. I let my hand stay on Derek's chest, where I could feel our hearts beating together. I could feel Derek's warm breath on my hair as he continued to trail his fingers up and down my back. This had to be what heaven felt like.

I'd intended to only lie there for a little bit, but I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, someone was slipping their arms underneath me and lifting me up off the hammock. I knew immediately that it was Derek. It reminded me a little bit of the time where Xavier had tried to carry me across the floor of my mom's music store. He hadn't made it very far. But as I wrapped my arms tiredly around Derek's neck and buried my face in his chest, I was aware of the fact that he had carried me across the yard and into the house. My mom had apparently been waiting up for when he would leave, since she was in the living room. She must have been watching another one of her sappy romance movies because her eyes looked shiny, like she'd been trying not to cry. She stood up and followed Derek to the base of the stairs, where he easily carried me up to my bedroom.

I kept my arms locked around his neck as he lowered me onto the bed. He went to stand up, but I kept my arms securely around him. I could feel his laugh whispering through my mind. "No, don't leave me," I said quietly, still half-asleep, delirious on how much I really needed it and how long it had been since I'd actually gotten some real rest. "Stay here." I knew my words were whispered, hardly audible, probably. I was so tired and out of it that all I wanted was for Derek to lie down next to me. I tried my best to pull him down onto the mattress despite the fact that my bed was only wide enough for me and maybe half of him. I was so tired that I didn't even care.

_I can't._ His voice was soft and warm. _Your mom is waiting downstairs to see me out. I'll come first thing in the morning, okay?_ He reached up to remove my arms from around him as he leaned down to press his lips to mine. He lingered there for a moment longer before letting himself out of my bedroom. It was only after I was sure that he was gone that I realized that he'd said something more.

_I love you, Emily._

**This time, when I set out on a goal of a shorter chapter, I succeeded. Honestly, I'll say that this chapter was sort of hard to write. It's probably because it was just basically a fluff piece. Since I already have my chapter titles and general plans laid out all the way to eighteen (currently,) these next few chapters should hold a little more plot-planning than this one (excluding one or two of them.)**

**As always, you know exactly what I'm going to say at this part because I always say the same thing. I'm a creature of habit. Which is why I say it again: please leave me a review, thank you for reading, and peace out with a smiley face. **_**Peace (:**_


	14. New Beginning

**BreeTico – I know! Derek's so ready to start his life with Emily, obviously, but he's keeping in mind that she is new to the Ace world and not pushing her. If only we could all find a guy like Derek! And Jack's character is, by far, one of my favorites. I'm even thinking about making a spin-off starring Jack as he finds his significant. But that's far in the future, and I've been cooking up another (yes, another) Significance fanfiction. (:**

**supernatural94 – Yay! (:**

**Complete Chocoholic – Why, thank you. I certainly do enjoy figuring out how to twist words into elegant sentences, though it doesn't happen as often as I'd like. Just another something for me to work on a little more (; And thank you so, so much for continuing to follow this story. It really does mean a lot!**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_14: New Beginning_

I woke up with a jolt. Derek's presence had been enough to send me into a sleep-induced haze, but throughout the night I woke up at random intervals, where I'd roll over and try to go back to sleep. In those moments, I'd never really been awake enough for proper thought. But when my alarm went off around nine and I yawned, rubbing crusties out of my eyes, I realized what I'd missed last night.

_I love you, Emily._ Had he really said that? Or had it just been my own wishful thinking in my half-asleep state? It was… well, it was miraculously scary. I had no doubt in my mind that if he had actually said it, he meant it. Derek wasn't the type of person to throw out heavy words like that just because he could. But the whole point was if he'd even said them. The other question was: if he _had _said them, what would I have said back? Did I love Derek? I knew that one day, supposedly, I would be so in love with him that I would be blinded by everything else. But I couldn't help but wonder if that had already happened. My mom had said that she'd seen the love in between us, in our relationship. She said that it had seemed stronger than what she'd had with my dad. I bit my lip as I lay there, staring up at the ceiling. I couldn't help but feel like this would have been easier if Id actually known what love _felt _like. Was it that nervous feeling of a million butterflies? Was it the constant warmth and concern I got from him? Was it the fact that I wanted him near me every second of every day?

What was love, really?

I sat up and looked around my room. I didn't need to think about that right now, not before I'd had some caffeine to get my brain up and running. Derek had taken off my shoes and left them by my closet doors at some point. He'd also taken off my belt and the shirt I was wearing over my camisole, but other than that I was still wearing what I'd been wearing last night. I hadn't even washed my face or taken my hair down. I probably looked like a hot mess.

I climbed out of bed and trudged to the shower, pausing to look at myself in the mirror. My eye shadow was smeared across my face and flecks of mascara clung to my cheekbones. My hair, which had been sleek last night, now looked like I'd been lost in the woods for a week. I groaned and turned on the hot water in the shower. I had to spend an extra ten minutes detangling my hair and scrubbing stubborn makeup off my face. I finally managed to change into a clean pair of jeans and a shirt that was over-sized at my shoulders. I slipped on my sandals and headed down the stairs to find the small cardboard boxes that I was supposed to carry upstairs last night and never got around to.

I was going to be moving into Derek's room, which meant that all I really needed to bring was my clothes and a few of my trinkets and the little things that I wanted to take with me, like my laptop and my makeup. I didn't see my mom in the kitchen and everyone knew that I wouldn't be able to hear her if she was in there, so I just scooped the boxes up and carried them back up the stairs. I threw open my closet doors and dumped all of my jeans and skirts into one box, slowly moving throughout my closet until the only things left were a box of holiday cards and old toys and board games that hadn't been touched since I was ten.

As I moved throughout my room, collecting things that I wanted to take with me and things that I had thought I'd lost years ago, I felt the sudden feeling that someone was watching me. In the old days, I used to be a big fan of horror movies. My eleven-year-old self had seen a load of them. I hadn't watched any since I lost my hearing because a horror movie surprisingly depends a lot on sound, but I still retained what I'd learned from them – mostly how to defeat zombies and what _not_ to do when stuck in an abandoned house with a psycho killer – but one of the things that I remembered was that if you felt like someone was watching you, someone probably was.

I turned around slowly, holding a box filled with my makeup and hair accessories. The only thing in it of true value was the jewelry box my grandmother had kept in her bedroom and given to me when I turned sixteen, just months before she died. But if there was some psycho standing in my doorway, I had the feeling that I could throw the box at him as hard as I could. But of course, I felt like an idiot the moment I turned around.

Derek leaned against the doorway, holding a large drink that had to be some sort of soda. I was never a big fan of coffee, but caffeine and I were tight. It was partly the reason that when Xavier made a run to the coffee shop, he got me some sort of pastry, never a coffee. Derek, of course, knew that. With a heavy sigh I sat the box down on the end of my bed and walked up to him. Derek held out the soda to me as he stood up a little straighter, kicking off from the doorway. I wrapped my fingers around the cup and stood up on my toes to kiss him. "Hi," I said, pulling back to take a sip of my drink. "I didn't hear you come in." I couldn't help but smile at my own inside joke. After I'd gotten over the depression of losing my hearing, I'd found humor in the fact that common sayings like that no longer applied to me. But in this case, it sort of worked. I didn't hear Derek's mind as he came into my room.

_Your mom let me in. _I turned to set the drink down on the edge of my desk as he surveyed my bedroom. _Those are just your clothes?_ He asked, looking down at the two large boxes I'd already packed up. I thought it had been pretty good, since it was my summer _and_ winter clothes, not to mention my collection of shoes and belts. But then again, Derek was a guy, and unless he was suddenly metrosexual, I didn't expect him to understand.

"I'm a girl. Girls love clothes. Just ask your sisters." I told him, patting my palm on his chest as I pushed one of the boxes aside and opened up my desk drawer. After I earned my diploma and my mom had packed up all of my school books and stuff for the attic, the desk had become less for paperwork and more for storage. I had accessories in almost every single drawer, from clips to pins to bottles of nail polish. Most of my jewelry, including my ring and bracelet that Derek had thoughtfully slipped off and set on my bedside table by my cell phone last night, were already tucked away in my grandmother's jewelry box, ready for transportation. As I continued to pack, Derek sat down on my bed and looked through the box that was still open. I ignored the fact that he was digging through my sets of nail polish and my hair accessories. He picked up a can of hairspray as I started packing up my books. I had more than enough books to fill the entire bookshelf in Derek's room, so I only took my favorites, the ones that I could see myself reading again if I ever got bored enough to do so.

I was about halfway through packing my bedroom when my mom entered the room with two plates. Both of them had sandwiches and a handful of potato chips. She'd even brought up two cans of soda, despite the fact that Derek had brought me a giant one earlier. In the one hour that he'd been here, Derek had taken off his shoes and gotten comfortable on my bed, leaning back against my pillows. It looked like he'd found one of my old photo albums. My grandmother had always had a penchant for photography; she used to tell me stories about when she worked as a news reporter back in the fifties and sixties. Every year on my birthday, she gave me a photo album that starred our family. I had at least five of them, if not a few more, in my bedroom alone. The rest of them were dispersed throughout the house. Derek kept himself preoccupied with flipping through them, smiling to himself and telling me how cute I was when I was eight. When my mom walked in, he dropped the book and jumped up to take the plates. She said something to him, punctuating it with a smile as she set down the soda cans on my desk. She was all smiles right now, but I could tell by the slight redness around her eyes that she was truly upset about me growing up and moving out.

I thought about saying something to her, but she just continued talking to Derek. She and I were alike in the way that when we got nervous and didn't want to let it show, we started talking and talking and talking. It was sort of like a knee-jerk reaction, as if babbling would make people think that we were okay, just fine, completely dandy. She said something else and touched his shoulder lightly. At least she wasn't taking this out on him. She gave me a quick smile before exiting my room. I stood up and brushed my hands off on my jeans. Derek handed me one of the plates and we both perched on my bed. Derek stole chips from my plate while I worked through my sandwich.

Eventually, I was fairly confident that I had packed up everything that I wanted to take with me. And it wasn't like I couldn't come back and grab something if I found out that I'd wanted it and had left it here. Derek carried two boxes down to the Trans Am while I followed behind with one. My mom didn't leave her bedroom, where I was sure that she had locked herself. I had been so sure that she would have come to talk to me before Derek came over, to give me her last few words of advice before I started a new chapter of my life. But she hadn't, and I still couldn't figure out why.

Derek opened up the back door so I could slide my box across the seat. He went to go get the remainder of my boxes and I took the moment to go see my mother. He took the stairs up to my bedroom while I headed in the opposite direction. I knocked on her bedroom door just for courtesy before trying the knob. It was unlocked, so I stepped inside. My mom had the TV on one of those crime dramas that she absolutely loved. The lamp on her bedside table was on, and she was sitting in bed with a binder propped up on her knee. It looked like she was filling out paperwork or something for the shop.

"Mom?" I asked. She looked up, and I could tell underneath her reading glasses that she'd been crying. Or maybe not _crying_, but her eyes had definitely been watering. I went to the other side of her big bed and climbed up, scooting all the way up to her side. She sighed and set the binder and the paperwork down, reaching up to pull off her reading glasses. She held them in her hands for a moment, looking down at them before setting the frames aside.

She signed, "I know, I'm just being an overdramatic mother. When you told me that you were moving out, I'd already known that it was coming. It's just one of those things that you can _see_. And I know that you're nineteen and old enough to be moving out. _I_ moved out when I was eighteen, right after graduating high school. I just didn't think it was going to be this sad."

I threw my arm around her, leaning my head on her shoulder. "It's okay, mom. It's just another chapter in my life. It's not like I'm never going to come around ever again." I told her. "You're still my mom, and I'm not going to pretend like nothing existed before I met Derek."

She laughed and wiped a finger under her bottom lashes, catching whatever tears had managed to break free. "I know that, honey, but it's just so… _bittersweet._" I thought about the fact that my dad had used the same word to describe it. Was it just a parent thing? They raised a little newborn for eighteen plus years and then sent her out to canvass the world. That was what parents usually did. I'd been prepared for them telling me that I couldn't go, but I hadn't expected them to tell me that I _could_ go, only to have them (or, specifically, my mom) cry about it. "Don't worry about it, honey. I'll get over it. You're older than I was when I left home. It's time for you to stretch out your wings and fly." She leaned over to kiss the top of my head and rubbed underneath her eyes again. She sat up a little more and signed, "Are you all packed up?"

"Yeah," I replied, leaning back to give her the room she obviously wanted. I felt a little guilty about this whole ordeal, but she had to know that I wasn't saying goodbye forever. Even if I _was_ leaving home, she was my family, and I would never just leave without giving her a second look. Even though the Aces said that once a woman imprints she's supposed to leave her family, I wasn't going to follow that rule. I hadn't grown up as an Ace. My parents had no idea about Aces or abilities or imprints, and I wasn't going to follow some stupid rule just because someone said I had to. I was going to see my parents as often as I wanted. "Derek's putting all of my boxes in the car." I told her.

She nodded and got up out of her bed. I scooted over to the opposite side and followed her to the kitchen and to the living room. Derek was coming back down the stairs without any boxes; I assumed he'd returned for one last trip to make sure that he had everything. He gave me a bright smile as he saw me waiting at the bottom. He hesitated in his step when he saw my mom, though. Derek wasn't so dense that he couldn't see the fact that my mom was slightly upset about this. If he was that clueless, he could have easily picked the information up from my mind.

He slid an arm around me when he reached the bottom of the stairs. My mom said something to him, and I felt the rumble of his voice as he answered. I looked up at her face in time to see my mom say, "Take care of her, okay?" Derek's mouth was in a straight line and he gave a nod, his hand rubbing up and down my arm. My mom reached out to hug me and I slipped out from Derek's arm to hug her hard. She let go of me and, to my surprise, reached out to give Derek one of her classic mom hugs. Derek had to bend forward a little bit, but he patted her on the back and said something else to her. She nodded, wiping at the fresh wave of tears. I gave her a smile as Derek and I headed for the front door and out to the car.

I'd managed to hold myself together without a lot of thought. I just didn't think that I'd cry over being able to leave. When I was sixteen, I'd wanted to get my driver's license so badly, but my mom said that it was dangerous for me. I wouldn't have been able to hear car horns or police sirens, so she immediately stamped a "not allowed" across it. When I was eighteen, I was sort of _ready_ to start my life. My mom had still held on to me, though, and in the end I didn't really care all that much. In truth, I _needed_ her, because there was no way I was going to be able to cut it on college, and even on the pay that I got for working at her store I would have only been able to pay rent on a crappy apartment at best. She'd taken a step back and given me a little bit of room, but she was still there, hovering.

Now, I was leaving her here and moving elsewhere. I was starting my life, just like I'd wanted. But I'd never imagined how hard it was going to be. Derek walked with me all the way down to the Trans Am, opening the front door so I could slide in. Once he made sure all of my limbs were in the car, he shut it behind me and headed around the front to the driver's side. He slid into his seat and gave me a look that was halfway in between wishing that I wasn't hurting and halfway ecstatic that this day had finally come. I felt the same way as he turned the key in the ignition. _Are you okay?_

_I'm fine._ I said back, giving him a smile to back up my words. And I was. I was excited about all of this. But my parents had both been right. It was bittersweet. I turned to look out the window and waved a hand to my mom as Derek put the car in drive and we started rolling down the street. The place was now solely my mom's house. I was going to my new home – it wasn't really the Stantons' house, directly. It was more like wherever Derek was was my home.

And so I was headed home.

# # #

Jack greeted us at the door. I'd already learned the patterns of Derek's family. Robert, Victoria, and Carissa went to work in the morning. Zach headed to school early like Xavier and came back mid-afternoon. Madison was at the high school until it let out at four, and Jack took his mornings off and went to classes at night when he could actually be prompted to show up. As it was, Jack was the only person at the Stanton household when Derek and I pulled up.

My significant parked the Trans Am in the driveway so we could more easily unpack the boxes. Jack joked and teased me while Derek and I started carrying my boxes inside. We set them on the end of his bed, and when all of them were unloaded, Derek went to move the car and Jack sat at Derek's desk while I opened the first box. Derek had shoved all of his shirts to one side of the closet and had obviously bought new hangers. The packages of them were still boxed up, waiting for me to open them. I picked up one of them and tore off the cardboard packaging, pulling out my shirts and methodically hanging them up in color order. My mom had always done her clothes like that, and I guess some habits you just pick up from other people. Jack kept trying to peek in my boxes while I made quick work of hanging up my shirts. Next came my skirts, which Jack pretended to pant after as I slipped them onto the hangers and hung them up and the end of the closet.

Derek had found a dresser that matched the rest of her furniture somewhere. I imagined that he had gone out and gotten it just for me. I would have dumped my underthings into the top drawer, but I couldn't bring myself to do it when Jack was in the room, watching everything that I did. I just stuffed my jeans into the second drawer and my socks into the third. I pulled out a small mirror that lit up and had two sides, one normal and the other magnified. It was so I could put on my makeup. The dresser was just tall enough that the mirror could sit on the top perfectly. My makeup always stayed in its own little bag, which I tucked behind the mirror. I had just reached for my jewelry box to set on top of the dresser when Derek stepped into the room. He'd been gone for nearly thirty minutes. I'd picked up a steady stream of disjointed thoughts, which sometimes happened when I wasn't really focused on him, so I hadn't really worried about him. It looked like he'd been in the kitchen, since he was bringing me a milkshake in a tall plastic cup.

He made a face at his brother as he handed me the glass. He'd even dropped in a bright pink straw that twirled and twisted into funky shapes. I put it to my lips and took a long pull on it before setting it down on the desk. Jack looked down at it, like he was debating on whether or not he wanted to drink after me. I decided to take the rare moment to tease him and said, "I wouldn't drink that if I were you. It would technically be like swapping spit with your brother." Jack made a horrified face. Derek's laughter broke through my mind. Sometimes I thought that I liked his laugh more than I liked his voice – warm and rough, it made my skin tingle. I took another drink of it just to make a point and Jack shook his head, standing up from the desk. He headed towards the door as I turned around to put my jewelry box on top of the dresser. I ran my thumb over the lock as I did. Derek sat down on the edge of the bed, and I took the moment when he wasn't looking to arrange my underthings in the top drawer, doing my best to block the image of them from Derek's mind. Just because he was my significant did not mean that he got to see all of that just yet.

I moved to his bookcase and managed to shove a few romances next to his horrors on the shelf, laughing to myself at the oddity of the whole thing. Once I was sure that my things were in place, I flopped back onto the bed. It was sort of obvious that the side closest to the closet was mine while Derek took he side that was closest to the door. It was unspoken between us, but understood. I closed my eyes, still tired despite the fact that I'd gotten a little bit of sleep on the hammock with Derek last night. I'd just never truly slept _well_, and after spending a single night with Derek, it was even worse without him there.

I felt him lay back on the mattress with me. I reached out for his hand, intertwining my fingers with his. _Take a nap. Madison needs to be picked up by four, but you've got about three and a half hours until then._ He said quietly. _I'll even set my alarm so we both wake up with enough time to get there._

I was suddenly overwhelmed with sleepiness that I didn't even try to muster the strength to move to curl up into his side. It turned out to not be required, since he rolled towards me, his arm draping over my side, his knees fitting behind mine. I could feel his breath on my hair as our hands stayed clasped together. I felt him moving and figured that he must be setting the alarm on his phone. It didn't take long for us to settle there, and I let my eyes close and drifted off into sleep.

# # #

Derek jerked awake so violently that it scared me. I jumped awake, running my fingers under my eyes to collect any mascara that had smeared during my nap. I ran a hand over my hair and let out a slow yawn. When I'd fallen asleep, I hadn't really expected to sleep for the upside of three hours, but apparently I had. Derek nudged me in the arm even though he could already tell that I was awake. I looked over at him and he gave me a big grin. _I'm just saving this memory in the very back of my mind so I can keep it forever._ He told me. I snorted in laughter despite the fact that it was one of the most romantic things he'd ever said to me. He started to lean towards me as if he was going to kiss me. I ducked away from him and rolled off the side of the bed, just barely missing him. I gave him a smirk, daring him to come after me, as I slipped my sandals on and ran my brush through my hair, giving myself a good look in my mirror. Derek just laughed before going to lace up his boots, but there was a promise floating over his thoughts: that he was going to get me back for it, eventually.

I grabbed my purse and opened the door, leaning against it. Derek's name was printed, in his handwriting, right across the whiteboard attached to the door. I glanced over at him before reaching for one of the markers in the tray hanging from it. Uncapping the marker, I made an and sign underneath his name and signed my own with flourish. It felt good. _Really_ good. I dropped the marker into the tray and viewed our names together. _Derek and Emily._ I liked it. It sort of showed who we were, even. His handwriting was strong and manly, all the letters capitalized and quickly written, but the _D_ was larger and slightly curved. My name, written underneath his, was in my messy cursive. Still readable, but much more girly.

Derek took my wrist as he bent forward and pressed a kiss to my cheek, pulling back to grin at our names on the whiteboard before pulling me into the hallway, closing the door behind him. We hurried out to the Trans Am, which was his favorite vehicle aside from his bike. We drove to Derek's old high school in relative silence, only speaking to each other in our minds.

We pulled up in front of the high school where there was some sort of circular drop-off/pick-up lane. Despite the fact that it was nearly four on the dot, we were nearly to the very front of the line. I figured that it was because half of the school had driven their own cars hear and didn't need to be picked up. That would be Madison next year. But as of now, we were her set of wheels. Not that I could really ridicule her for it – I still needed other people to drive me around.

Derek rolled down the front windows and shut off the engine to wait. I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. I sort of felt like I had days of sleep to make up for. It didn't take long for my seat to shift a little bit, as if someone were moving next to me. I opened my eyes and caught Derek sliding across the bench seat, abandoning the wheel. A smile crossed my face as I immediately moved to dodge him. He caught me, though, an arm on either side of me on the door, where I'd shifted. He leaned closer to me, balancing on his knee on the seat, leaning above me.

_I told you I would get you back._ His voice slid through his mind like cold water on a hot day, completely soothing and just what I needed. A slightly evil smile crossed his face. He was definitely feeling a little devious.

"You wouldn't," I challenged, though I couldn't fight the smile threatening to break free. He leaned forward to slowly brush his lips against mine. I reacted, pressing up against him, my hands on his chest. I felt a rumble underneath my palms as our kiss turned from teasing to feverish. He leaned back a little bit, and instead of pulling away I followed him. My hands slid up his neck and into his hair while his fingers gripped my sides almost roughly. Whenever I was with Derek, it was like my world was him and _only_ him. I was hardly even aware of the fact that I was pushing up against him as our mouths moved together. He leaned back, maybe to breathe or to tell me that he needed a moment, but for some reason I could force myself to stop.

As our mouths met again, I realized that I could really _feel_ Derek, like we were one in the same, two halves of a whole. His mind was warm, like a cocoon, spilling out concern and passion and, yes, _love_. I wondered if he could get a read on me that easily. I was aware of the fact that I was making some sort of sound as Derek leaned into me. I could feel my back pressed against the dashboard of the car, his fingers pressing against bare skin where my shirt had come up about an inch above the waist of my jeans. Derek's mind seemed to suddenly change, almost has if something from the outside world had encroached on us. But he didn't pull away from me, just made a noise that said he couldn't be bothered. After another second, he pulled away from me.

I felt my stomach plummet when I saw why he'd pulled away. Embarrassment flooded over me, staining my cheeks red. Derek took a hold of my chin brought my face to his for a short, light kiss. His thumb brushed against my cheekbone as we both turned to look at his sister standing next to the passenger door, peering in the window. She was smiling, so we couldn't have been in that much trouble. "You two are making a scene," she said. She glanced over her shoulder, and I caught the sight of a bunch of girls tittering together on the sidewalk. There were even some guys leaning nonchalantly against the stone benches, but I could tell that they were amused. "Hey, Derek, you remember Jenny?" He glanced around his sister again, but Madison continued without an answer. "She's pretty much fuming. She's _so_ in love with you." She punctuated her words with a smirk. I rolled away from Derek, back to my seat. He sneered at his sister as Madison laughed, opening up the back door and sliding into the Trans Am.

_Let's go home._ Home.

# # #

Madison hadn't mentioned the thing at her school to anyone, which I was thankful for. Jack would have a party with it, teasing me until we were so old that we wouldn't be able to remember it anymore. And I definitely didn't want to hear another joke about how Victoria and Robert weren't ready to be grandparents.

Hearing that once was mortifying enough.

Madison had some friends over to use the pool before fall set in and it got too cold. I recognized some of the girls who had been standing with her on the sidewalk when we picked her up from school. I was embarrassed, but Derek wasn't bothered in the least as he and I stretched out on the couch. Jack had just gotten back from his classes and wanted to put in a comedy movie. The Stanton family loved their movies and had a huge collection of them hidden away in the entertainment center's cabinets. It was sort of ironic that out of all the people Derek could have imprinted with, he imprinted with a deaf girl. Movies generally require _hearing_. Derek had told me that he planned to just put on the subtitles when Madison burst into the room, towel wrapped around her. Her hair was soaked; it looked longer now that all of the curls had been straightened out.

Zach had retreated to his bedroom to study and Carissa had gone out with some of her friends. I had sort of been shocked that she was going out clubbing. It wasn't because she wasn't the type to party, she certainly was one that looked like she'd rather enjoy that scene, but it was because I had no idea what she was going to do at a club. Alcohol was poisonous to Aces, and it wasn't like she could pick up a date at a bar. Well, she _could_, but it would be completely against the rules. She'd be considered a pariah for doing so. And even though I could tell that Carissa wanted to be able to enjoy life, she wasn't one to cast herself down as a lowlife. She would be just as stingy with the rules as her brother had been before he met me. That left the two boys and Madison, and it looked like she wanted more people to hang out with.

"Do you want to come outside and sit with us?" She signed to me. With one glance out the window, I could see that the two friends that hadn't left yet were looking inside expectantly. I thought I recognized them as girls that had been on the sidewalk and seen me and Derek that afternoon. Since that was embarrassing, I told myself that it was just because they hadn't seen me hanging around before, and I had the feeling that Madison had friends over often. I wasn't sure if there was any rule against Aces having human friends that weren't in the know, but I figured that it was sort of strange that Madison had her friends over. Derek only ever talked about his band mates as friends. Carissa had her fair share of friends but I'd never seen any of them at the house; she'd always gone out to meet them. Zach looked like most of his friends were books (it was kind of cruel, but true) and Jack, the comedian, had never mentioned any buddies. Aces were just so set around family that brothers and sisters and cousins were the basis of friendships. They didn't technically need anyone else.

But Madison and Carissa were both social butterflies, so I guess it made sense.

I glanced up at Derek for a moment. I really didn't want to go hang out with a bunch of sophomore girls who I couldn't hear or understand. I think Madison just wanted to push me into a world outside of my books, my mom's music shop, and Derek. But I wasn't willing to step into it, not yet. With a smile, I said, "No can do. Besides, Derek told me that the blonde one is Jenny, and she looks pretty pissed at me."

Jack, sitting just inside of my peripheral vision, cracked into a fit of laughter. Did everyone know about this poor girl's crush on my significant? Even though I knew Derek found Jenny's crush slightly awkward and completely unappealing, he laughed, too. Madison cracked a grin, and she looked about two seconds from saying something else to me, but Derek stopped her. She rolled her eyes at her older brother and turned away, sashaying back out to the back porch. The two girls sitting outside snapped to attention. With a yawn, I stretched out my arms and said, _I think I'm going to go to the room and read a book._

_You want me to go in there with you?_

_What, so you can watch me read? I'm a big girl, you know. Stay here and watch a movie with Jack._ I said back, placing a kiss underneath his chin as I got up from the couch and bounded down the hallway. I was just about to push open the door to Derek's – our – bedroom when Zach's door opened. He glanced over at me, and I met his gaze with a smile.

In all my time of knowing him, I hadn't realized how much he and Derek did and didn't look alike. Zach was only one year older than Derek, but in a way he looked like he was the younger brother. His mop of black hair was about the same shade as Derek's, and his green eyes were bright but they lacked my significant's golden hazel flecks. He didn't look babyish, but there was a sort of boyish charm about him. And out of all the Stanton boys, he was the smallest in both height and broadness. I would go so far as to call him slightly bookish. But he was just as handsome as the rest of them, just in a less manly, I-can-beat-you-up way. He and Jack were more alike in their narrower shoulders, but Jack was lanky and tall, maybe even an inch or two taller than Derek. "Hey," I said, giving him a smile.

Zach nodded. He still hadn't said a word directly to me despite the fact that Derek and I had been imprinted for more than a week. I guess he was just the shy type, maybe even overshadowed by his brothers. Jack was all over the place, and Derek had no problem standing on a stage in front of a crowded room. Even his sisters were more socially _there_ than he was, with Carissa on the way to being a miniature socialite and Madison well-adjusted into her own crowd. He stepped past me and into the bathroom. With a slight sigh, I slipped into the bedroom that I now shared with Derek and went to change, pulling on a pair of sleep shorts and a camisole. I was going to have to go to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, but I would do that later. For now, I was going to curl up under the covers and read my new book.

I had finished about a third of it when Derek walked into the room. I looked up and caught the grin that was spreading across his face. _You have no idea how good it feels to walk in here and see you sitting there._ I snorted and reached for my bookmark, shoving it in between the pages and dropping the book onto the bedside table. I didn't have a lamp or a clock, so I'd just laid out my cell phone, my book, and a water bottle.

"Is anybody in the bathroom?"

_Not yet. If you don't hurry, though, Madison's going to take a shower and be in there for the next decade._

I crawled across the bed and grabbed my bag of toiletries, darting across the hall. I tied my hair back to the point where it was almost sitting on top of my head, pulling my bangs out of my face so I could wash it. I splashed water onto my face, brushed my teeth, and smoothed moisturizer over my cheeks. I leaned forward to look at the mirror, blinking a little bit at my reflection. In the bathroom light, my hair looked less shiny than it did in the sun, but it was as black as night. My eyes were the same stormy gray as my father's, the outer ring a different shade of dark gray-blue. I'd inherited my mom's slightly darker complexion, but the smattering of freckles across my nose (that were so light they were almost invisible and were virtually undetectable when I wore makeup) were my father's. Derek had told me that the ascension would change me physically; not so much that I would look like a different person, but enough that I would be _changed_. I let out a heavy sigh and turned to rush back to the bedroom.

Derek was flicking through his closet, wearing only the pajama pants that I'd seen on him before. I'd never seen his bare back before, so I was a little shocked to see the inked black dragon that rested between his shoulder blades. It was hot; _extremely_ hot. I did my best to clear my mind about his tattoo and set my bag down on the desk, going to pass by him and crawl underneath the covers. But I was so focused on the muscles moving on Derek's back as he pulled an undershirt over his head that I missed the fact that my shoe was blocking the way.

And like the graceful ballerina I am, I tripped over it and nearly went tumbling. Derek turned around to catch me immediately, his hands grabbing me around the waist. The skin of our arms touched, and something shot through me. My heart immediately started pounding harder as my veins froze to ice and my skin burned with fire. Where had I felt that before?

Suddenly, I knew. My imprint had felt just like this, but at that time I'd been too blocked by the visions to be able to really feel what it did to me physically. This could only be one thing. The ascension. I was suddenly giddy. This was exactly what Derek had been looking forward to his entire life. He'd just had to find me first. I could _feel_ the excitement coming off from him like it was a tangible, physical thing. It was rolling in waves off of me, too. After this, I would have the chance to see if my hearing could be returned to me. Never mind the fact that I was about to be gifted with some sort of ability.

I had the time to stand there and think about how ironic this all was. Derek and I had met at my mother's shop and imprinted over a five dollar bill, but the first time we'd _really_ touched was when I slipped on a piece of paper and caught me. This time, our ascension came when he caught me after I'd tripped over something. It looked like, for once, my natural clumsiness had worked in my favor.

We held onto each other so tightly that it almost hurt. When we pulled away, I _felt_ different. There was a part of me that felt like something had changed on the outside, but the feeling rested more on the fact that something had changed mentally.

_It has. We've ascended. We're more in tune with each other than ever before. Now, we can literally press into each other's minds and look on each other from a distance. We are… we're two parts of a whole, Emily._ His voice was warm and excited at the same time. He grabbed a hold of me, and I felt my skin rippling, like he was doing something to me. He pressed his forehead to mine, and I closed my eyes immediately, breathing him in.

He took a step back, and I noticed something different about him physically. He looked slightly taller and a little broader, if that was even possible. He looked a little bit older, his jaw more chiseled. He just looked slightly _different._ I was supposed to look different, too. I wondered how that had worked out. I had to work to keep myself rooted to the spot and not running to the mirror. Because there was something else that was more pressing at the matter.

I opened my mouth, and Derek stood there, waiting for me to say something. I stood there as still as possible and strained my ears. Derek's clock was electric, so there was no ticking. Neither of us were moving, and I couldn't hear anybody else in the house. I stood there for a moment, closing my eyes. I had to mentally prepare myself for the chance that it hadn't worked, that despite our theories our ascension hadn't actually healed me.

I opened my mouth without any thought as to what I was going to see. Only one word slipped out. "Derek…." I froze, my eyes growing the size of disks. I had _heard_ myself! My heart shot off like I was in a race for my life. "Derek." I said again, with more conviction. A slight smile started up on his face as I stood there, my muscles locked. My voice was sort of how I remembered it from when I was a kid, but it was _older_, more professional. It was still sweet, though, almost musical.

I think it took me a moment to fully realize it. I moved ever so slightly and gently kicked at my shoe. It skidded across the wooden floor and hit the post on Derek's bed. I'd heard the sound of the rubber on the sole sliding across the floor, the smack as it hit the bedpost. _I could hear again!_

Just like that, it was like my muscles unlocked. With a scream that I _heard_, I jumped forward. My arms went around Derek's neck as his arms encased me in a hug. My legs wrapped around his waist as I took a hold of his face. "You healed me, Derek." I said excitedly before planting a kiss right on his lips.

**This was a big moment that I wasn't really sure how to write. I wanted suspense, I wanted excitement, I wanted I-can't-believe-that-just happened. Hopefully, I managed to achieve that.**

**Thank you all for reading, and please do take a moment to leave me a review in the box below. Thanks! Peace (:**


	15. Best Friends For Never

**BreeTico - Lol, I'm glad you're happy. I love ascensions, too. Now you get to find out their abilities. I hope you like them, since I really stewed over them for a while.**

**Complete Chocoholic - Thank you so much. Zach has sort of been a hidden character, I guess. He's always hiding in the shadows, that one. (;**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_15: Best Friends For Never_

Derek stumbled backwards, his knees hitting the edge of the bed. I could tell that he was working to keep himself restrained, and since I didn't want to cause him anymore pain, I decided to take a step back and give him a moment. I unwound my legs from his waist, but Derek didn't let me go. Still holding me to him, I ended up standing on the tops of his feet so we could still reach each other.

I'd had my fair share of electric kisses with Derek. They always seemed to happen at times where we'd be embarrassed if someone caught us, which they always did. This time, though, we were in our own bedroom. That might not have exactly been _safe_, but it was pretty isolated. Derek's lips were soft on mine, moving feverishly. He tasted like mint, probably from his toothpaste. His touch alone sent chills down my spine. It wasn't just a kiss; it was more like a connection. Sure, it was his lips that were making my legs feel more like jelly, but there was the fact that he felt like home, that our minds were pressed close. Even though I wanted to press into his mind like he'd said I'd be able to, he had a door pulled down so I couldn't. I couldn't let myself worry about that right now, though. It was always so hard to think clearly and coherently when I was around Derek.

There was a knock on the door, loud enough that it sort of scared me. I knew right away that it was going to be weird hearing things again. That thought crossed my mind just as Derek groaned, obviously annoyed that we were being bothered in our own bedroom. The sound alone made me shiver. _I would have thought that we would have some alone time._ He didn't let go of me, though, as the knocking continued on the door. "Go 'way!" He called out gruffly. Derek's actual voice was more reaction-inducing than his mental voice. My hands tightened on his upper arms, corded muscle lying underneath my fingertips. His lips returned to mine and he took a step forward, continuing to move until the back of my thighs hit his desk. His hands tightened on my hips before lifting me up onto the desk.

Derek ignited a fire in me. It was like I was just a dull flame, continuing to live on without any real reason. But if I was moved closer to him, it burned hotter, turning from orangey-red to a blue so bright it looked white. His hands stayed on my hips, fingers splayed against the bare skin of my back where my shirt had ridden up a little bit. My hand was on the side of his neck, my thumb resting in just the right place that I could feel the pounding of his pulse. If I could, I wanted to stamp this memory in my mind and keep it forever.

But it was ruined by the fact that someone was knocking incessantly on the bedroom door. I could hear the slightly annoyed sound I made. Derek echoed the sentiment, pulling away from me to rest his forehead against mine. He still had a doorway down on his mind, but I could get the feeling that he had something very important that he wanted to tell me. That he _needed_ me to know. He took a deep breath, minty freshness washing over me. Finally, he decided to speak. His voice was soft and low, gravelly and warm, enough to send shivers down my spine and make goose flesh rise on my arms. "I love you, Emily."

He _had_ said it. I was instantly giddy, excitement bursting through me like I'd opened a dam. I opened my mouth to say something back – like "I love you so much that if you weren't around I think I'd die" – when the doorknob shook, warning us that whoever was out in the hallway was tired of waiting and wasn't planning on going away. Derek muttered a low oath and pulled away from me, leaving me perched on the top of his desk. As he neared the door I jumped up, relishing the sound of my feet on the hardwood.

Derek yanked on the door. It swung open so hard that it almost hit the wall behind it. "_What_?" He asked, obviously annoyed. I couldn't tell if we looked like we'd been caught mid-make out, but I still self-consciously ran my hands over my hair, smoothing it down. There was nothing I could do to hide my fleece shorts and camisole combination. I still crossed my arms over my chest, though, as I sidled up to Derek. Madison's hair was soaking wet. She was wearing pajama pants underneath a fluffy robe. I'd never seen her without her makeup on, and she was just as pretty without it. Her eyes looked larger, reminding me of a deer when it was caught in the headlights. Behind her stood Zach, looking as stoic as ever.

She opened her mouth to say something to Derek when her eyes darted to me. I took the moment to speak. "Say something," my voice was almost hard, like I was demanding her to talk. Her eyebrows immediately furrowed together as she looked me over. She sort of looked like she was expecting to see me or her brother in danger. She lifted her hands to sign, and I took a hold of both of her hands. "No, _say_ something."

She looked at a loss for words. She shook her head. "Emily, I don't –"

I squealed, jumping up and down for a moment, my hands tightening on hers. "I can _hear_ you, Madison!" I exclaimed, releasing her hands to throw my arms around Derek. "Derek healed me!" I turned to look at Zach, but he didn't seem fazed in the least. Of course. I felt like he was the rock of the family, virtually the only one that could really hold onto his emotions. He reminded me of Xavier in that way, stony eyes, a schooled expression, and a calculated way of holding himself. He wasn't going to give anything away. I think that was why I was so shocked when he glanced up at me and gave me a genuine smile. I couldn't help but smile back as Madison looked in between me and Derek.

"So, I'm guessing you ascended?" Her voice was girlish, young and sort of vulnerable. But there was a hint to it that said she was a force to be reckoned with if you angered her. "Have you two figured out your abilities yet?" She asked, looking completely swept off of her feet. This ascension wasn't just a miracle for me and Derek; it was a sign of hope for her and the rest of the Stanton family.

"We haven't tried," Derek replied honestly. I could tell, though, that he was looking at me from the corner of his eye. I glanced over at him, completely awed by the fact of how close we were. I had thought that the imprints were a little bit of an encroachment on personal space – they were, I just really liked it – but this was on a completely different level. I was suddenly _aware_ of the fact that my body reacted immediately to his, that the two of us considered the other the center of the universe, that we were just circling around the other on a continuous, eternal path.

Madison's eyes searched over us, probably looking for the ascension changes. Derek's were barely noticeable, something that other people could write off as the angle of the sun. I wondered if mine were the same. She didn't say anything about it, though. Instead, she chose to focus on our abilities. "Well, do you feel the pull?" She asked.

Derek closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Yes, Madison. But if you don't mind, we're tired. And we're going to go to sleep." He moved to close the door.

"But we heard a scream." Madison said, brushing a chunk of wet hair behind her ears. Her eyes met mine, like she thought she had a better chance of finding an answer from me than her open book brother. But there was a sly smile on her face that said she knew exactly why we hadn't opened the door. Maybe she was even doing this just to tease us, standing outside our bedroom door, looking like she wasn't planning on moving any time soon.

"That was me," I admitted, "finding out that I could hear again." As I said the words, I unconsciously brushed my hair behind my ears. The doctors had told me that it would be a miracle if even little bits of my hearing returned to me. It was safe to assume that they hadn't thought that anything like Derek's healing touch would come along, but it _was_ a miracle. "Sorry, really. But Derek's right, I'm really tired. Can we talk in the morning?" I asked.

Madison raised her eyebrows at me. "Fine. But don't think I won't come in here and wake you up before school starts so I can get the story, with _all_ the details, out of you. And I'm spreading the word. Don't think I won't." She said, shaking a finger at the two of us like we were being scolded.

"That's great," Derek said tiredly, his arm slipping around my waist. He was just annoyed that he couldn't have any alone time with me. Despite the fact that his mental door was locked down the majority of the way, that slipped through easily enough. He wanted Madison and Zach out of the doorway so he could talk to me. "Spread the word that we don't want to be bothered." He told her, starting to close the door.

"Fine," Madison replied in the same tone. "But remember what mom said. She doesn't want any grandchildren just yet."

Derek closed the door before she could say anything else. _I'd do anything to have a lock, now._ His voice echoed through my mind as he turned to look at me, placing his forehead against mine. Our minds mingled together, skimming the surface. But Derek stayed a good distance away. I tried to mask my confusion and slight pain about it, but he felt it, of course. _There are more things that I haven't told you, yet. I didn't want to worry about anything else until later. But it matters now._

My curiosity shot through me, outlined with worry. What could he possibly be hiding from me? I thought that we didn't do that. I hadn't held back anything from him. So what _didn't_ he want me to know? I unconsciously took a slight step backwards, pulling away from him. My hurt was obvious to me. It must be pounding on him. His hands came up to cup my face, forcing my eyes to his. "It's not like that," he said quickly. "It's more… awkward."

"Awkward," I repeated, cocking an eyebrow. What could possibly be so embarrassing that _he_ would call it awkward? He had been so completely unbothered by the fact that we were caught making out in the backyard or in his car in front of the high school.

Derek grinned a little bit, sort of ruefully, and he said, "I can't let your mind get too close to mine because it… sets me off." His eyes darted sideways for a second, biting down on his lip. I wasn't even sure that guys bit down on their lip. But he did, and oh my God, it was hot. "The imprint wants me to have all of you, Emily." He said quietly. "It's more than just physical. It's called mutualizing. And honestly, I'm not sure it's a step we're ready for yet." His voice was soft, his eyes warm as he smoothed his thumb over my cheek. "It has nothing to do with you. I just… we've been imprinted for just over a week, and you were human, probably still reeling from all of this inside and I can't… I can't force you and beg you to do anything that we aren't ready for."

I couldn't help but smile. Derek was technically right – I wasn't sure if I was ready to give anything more than I already was. Our kisses were feverish, and it was hard enough to keep both of us with a level head. And we'd only been together for just over a week. I'd already moved in with him and was sort of planning for our future together, but after he explained what mutualizing was in greater detail, I agreed with him. It was a big step for our relationship. I was just thankful that Derek would understand and give me that choice.

"Hey, Derek," I said after a moment. He sent me a large question mark in my mind. "Remember what you told me earlier?" I could tell that he was searching through everything he'd told me this evening. I was a little shocked that he didn't remember it because it had been so momentous for me, but then again, if it was something so easily realized for him he probably wouldn't keep track of it like I would. I gave him another second to think it through before I said, "I love you, too."

# # #

Madison wasn't lying. I'd been so sure that having my hearing back would be completely awesome, but there were some pitfalls to it. Like the fact that I'd wanted to just sleep but I couldn't, since someone was knocking on the bedroom door. I propped myself up on my elbow to look over Derek's side at his clock. It wasn't even eight in the morning yet. I let out a slight groan, debating on whether or not I should go get the door.

Derek's hand came up suddenly, startling me. He rested it in the side of my neck, giving me a slight smile. _Don't bother. Maybe she'll decide to leave us alone._ I grinned, dropping back down onto the mattress. Derek's arm went around me and I snuggled into his chest, taking in a deep breath of that smell that was just _Derek_.

The knocking didn't last as long as it did last night. I heard the twist of the knob and the door swung open. Madison stepped into the room. She didn't take a step for a moment, and I imagined that she was looking at us. After a second or two, her footsteps resumed. She didn't bother to try and wake Derek, instead coming around the end of the bed and taking a seat on my side. There was plenty of room for her because Derek and I had shifted as close to each other as we could. I could feel her crawling closer to me, sort of like a child when they're scared of the dark and begging their parents to not send them back to their room. She put a hand on my arm and gave me a shake. "Emily," she whispered.

"Leave her alone," Derek said tiredly, tightening his hold around me. "Jesus, Madison. Can we do this later?"

"I told everyone last night that you two ascended, and we all want to know. You promised me that I'd be the first to know." She complained. "And I've got school until four."

"I don't remember ever promising you that you would know anything first." Derek said. I nudged him with a palm on his chest and sat up, running a hand over my hair. I blinked tiredly and looked over Madison. She was wearing a skirt with a tank top and cardigan. She looked like she better belonged in a back-to-school magazine as one of the preppy, pretty, _kind_ girls. The colors were pale pink and white, for God's sake. She grinned at me broadly.

"See? Emily knows the importance of this." Madison said, directing her words to her brother. She looked over at me as if she wanted to make sure that I got it. In the time since my hearing had returned to me, I'd sort of gotten used to it again. It's easy to slip into something that you once knew so well. It was sort of like when Derek and I first communicated in our minds. It was just something that was supposed to happen, so it wasn't hard to get used to it. There were still things that I wasn't used to, yet, but for now, I had gotten used to Derek's and Madison's voices and the sound of my significant breathing. I'd even gotten reacquainted with our hearts when I'd laid my head on his chest to go to sleep. The sound of the two of them beating together had eventually lulled me to sleep.

"I get to go back to sleep after this, right?" I asked. Derek snorted in laughter behind me, his hand touching my wrist. I could feel him get up, pushing back the covers and going to stand. His footfalls were heavier on the hardwood floors than Madison's were.

Madison rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever. Now come on, get up. I've got to find out what you two can do." With a yawn that wasn't needed, I stretched out my arms just for the feeling of waking up my muscles. Madison moved to perch on the end of the bed, facing me, as Derek walked around the end. Throwing open his closet door, he pulled off his undershirt and replaced it with a T-shirt with tour dates on it, giving me a partial glance at his dragon tattoo. It worked for his rock star persona, not as well as the soft shirts he usually wore, but it still made him look handsome. I could see lower half of his biceps as he continued to dig around. I tried to keep my eyes from lingering on him for too long. I'd be embarrassed if he knew that I thought that about him, much less if his little sister caught me ogling.

I relished the fact that the floorboards creaked under my feet. Derek and I moved around each other as I headed to the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a tank top shirt that had longer sides so it was loose and flowing around my waist. I laid it on top of the desk, since I wanted to wash my hair before getting ready for the day. Derek, still wearing his pajama pants, looked over at his little sister before glancing at me. "You promise to leave us alone after this?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow like he didn't even believe himself.

His sister just laughed. "Alright, Derek," Madison directed. "Let's see it. What can you do?"

"No idea," he replied blandly. Madison sighed heavily and glanced at the clock on Derek's bedside table. She gave me the stink-eye, like it was my fault that he was being uncooperative. Derek waved a hand and said, "I can't _tell_ you what it is. I can just… feel it, you know?" He closed his eyes momentarily, and I could mentally feel that he was trying to follow a line. I looked in myself for that line, the one that was supposed to lead me to my ability, but I couldn't tell if it was there. There was some weird sort of urge, though, to reach out and touch Madison's arm. It felt sort of like the pull that drew me to Derek.

Madison and I just stared at her brother. Derek took a deep breath and looked up, shaking his head. "I don't –"

"Oh, my God," I breathed. His gaze snapped to me, his mind scanning mine to see what had made me freak out. I reached out and barely brushed my fingers across his arm. I had just touched his forearm, but everything below that, his wrist, his hand, his fingers, was _gone_.

"Invisibility," Derek said as it continued to crawl up his arm. I pulled my hand away before it could touch me, even though I knew that it wouldn't hurt me. Derek's feet were disappearing, and it was spreading over his chest. I started to walk around him, just to see if he was disappearing in the back, too. As I stepped behind him, Madison cleared her throat.

"Not invisibility; camouflage." We both looked at her. "When Emily walked behind you, Derek, she disappeared for a moment. You're like a chameleon. You're blending in with your surroundings. And when you stand in front of Emily, you block her from being seen."

I couldn't see Derek now, but I could still tell exactly where he was. I didn't know if it was because I was his significant, or if it was because it was just sort of noticeable. It was almost like he exuded a don't-look-at-me feeling, and if you knew what to look for, it was easy to find exactly where he was standing. I reached out and just barely touched his chest. _You've found me,_ his voice slipped through my mind, and I grinned.

Madison cleared her throat loudly. Derek shifted back into view. His form filled in quickly, much faster than it had disappeared. My hand was still resting on his chest. Our heartbeats were nestled together, both of them beating a little too quickly. _You were invisible_. Even in my head, my voice sounded breathy. I had gotten used to the fact that I was going to have an ability one day, but I didn't think that my significant would be able to pop in and out of existence at will. I took a deep, shaky breath.

"Well, Emily?" Madison asked from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see her standing there with her hands on her hips, her expression telling me that I better not be playing any funny games. I rolled my eyes at her and looked up at Derek.

_You feel that pull, don't you? Do it, see what you can do with it._ His words of encouragement gave me enough confidence that I turned away from him for a moment, tapped into that access point, I reached out to touch Madison. She jerked away so violently that I'd thought I shocked her.

"What'd you do that for?" She asked sharply. I opened my mouth to apologize, but Derek cut me off, asking what had happened. "It was like you tried to break into my mind." She said, shaking her head. "I don't know, it was sort of like a sudden headache." With a shrug, she held out her hand. "Okay, try again. But this time, can you try not to stab my brain to death?"

"Sorry," I said, cautiously reaching out a second time. When I did, it was like my body knew what to do on its own. I could feel Madison's mental walls, and I pushed through them, making some sort of connection with her. She winced a little bit, and I immediately apologized out loud. I could feel Derek's hand on my side, but I was fully focused on Madison. I could almost see a thin link opening up in between us, and I knew that the moment I stepped away from her, it would be broken and I'd have to start all over again. Something deep down inside told me to command her to do something. "Make the bed," I said calmly. Madison pulled away from me, breaking the connection. Derek and I watched in wonder as Madison reached the bed and tugged the sheets up, tucking them underneath the pillows. The moment she finished, she took a startled step backwards, turning to look at us. She seemed a little dazed.

"Mind control," I breathed.

"More like compulsion," Derek said behind me. "It looks like you have to be touching them to make them do what you want, and once they complete it they're free." He mused. "Now _that_ is pretty awesome."

"Yours is pretty awesome, too," I told him. "You know how sometimes you just want to fade into the background? Well, you now you can." I teased. I was trying to look upbeat and excited, but I was feeling extremely nervous. What kind of normal life could I have if I made accidental connections with people whenever I touched them? If they knew about my ability, would they trust me? Or would they just think that I was putting thoughts into their heads?

Derek put his hands on my bare arms. Apparently, he believed that I wouldn't start putting directions into his head. He shook his head, pressing his forehead to mine. _You control it, Emily. It doesn't control you. What you did with Madison was finding out what you could do. It shouldn't take too long for you to be able to use it at will. If you don't want to use it, you won't. You're still you, you just have a kick-butt power._

Derek gave me a chaste kiss and released me. He looked over my shoulder and said to Madison, "You've got your answers. Now don't you have to go to school or something?"

Madison sneered at him. "Fine, I'm leaving so you two can do your cutesy little lovebird thing. I'm telling mom about your abilities!" She darted out of the bedroom, barely pausing to close the door behind her. The moment she was out of the room, Derek pulled me close, resting his hands on my hips.

"Our cutesy lovebird thing?" I echoed as Derek leaned against me.

"She's just jealous," he replied, his words making his lips brush against mine. The butterflies in my stomach stirred, and he grinned. I knew now that he could feel my excitement and interest. It was just a perk of the ascension. "She can't wait until she's standing where we are."

"In your room?" I asked. I tried for sarcasm and just ended up sounding sort of breathy, obviously affected by him.

"You're hilarious," he said back, his voice low. I liked the fact that I could do the same thing to him that he did to me. I could feel his excitement, his want, his love. And it warmed my skin and made me feel like I was walking on air. He bent forward a little more, pressing his lips to mine. He deepened the kiss, his tongue tracing over my bottom lip. I gave in, letting him push me against the wall. One of his hands rested on the wall by my head, the other tangled in the hair at the nape of my neck, pulling me closer to him. My fingers tied into the belt loops of his jeans.

The sound of my phone vibrating on table distracted me for a moment. It stopped after just three rings, meaning that it was a text message. I really shouldn't have expected to get a call because everyone who knew that number knew that I was once deaf. They still assumed that I was deaf. I started to pull away to check it, even though I didn't want to. Derek needed to catch his breath just as much as I did. But he didn't let me step past him.

"Let it wait," he murmured against my ear as kisses traveled down the side of my neck.

"We both need to take a breather," I told him quietly, as gently as I could.

He chuckled against my lips, pressing his to mine for a second longer for pulling away to give me a little bit of room. He didn't release me completely, which honestly made me smile. I rested my head on his chest and listened to our heartbeats slowly calm down a little bit, returning to their normal patterns. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't find anything to say. I was perfectly comfortable standing where I was. This moment might have been awkward with anybody else, but with Derek, it was _normal_, comforting and perfect.

My phone went off again, reminding me that I had an unread text message. With a heavy sigh, I pulled away from Derek and went to sit on the edge of my bed. Picking up my phone, I saw that it was from my mom. Well, she hadn't waited very long, had she? I hadn't even been moved in for twenty-four hours yet and she was already texting me. I opened up the text and groaned out loud, falling back onto our now-made bed.

Derek perched on the mattress next to me. "What is it?"

"Can't you just dig around in my mind and find out?" I asked, squeezing my eyes shut. Without waiting for him to answer, I said, "My mom says that Xavier's called in sick for the day. She needs me to come in and work the twelve to eight shift. She promised me that she'd pay me extra." I told him. I wondered if that was what I looked forward to now. I used to spend my entire day at the shop without any extra pay. But now that I'd moved out, she was treating me like I was just another one of her employees.

"Hey," Derek said softly, resting a hand on the side of my neck. I kept my eyes closed, relishing his touch. "Don't worry about it. Your mom is just falling into the routine of having you be somewhere else. I'm sure she's wondering if she should treat you like her daughter or treat you like an adult."

"Can't she treat me as both?" I complained, rolling over to look at him.

He grinned down at me. "It hasn't even been twenty-four hours, Emily. Both of you need to get used to it. Right now, it probably feels like a sleepover for the both of you." I made a face, because that was exactly what I'd been thinking. He smirked, leaning forward to press his lips to my forehead. "Go on and shower. I'll finish getting ready and go smooth things over with my mom. She may seem like she's mature, but if Madison gets her excited enough she'll be running down here wanting proof of our abilities." He smiled to himself as I rolled over, pushing myself up onto my feet.

I moved through the motions of getting ready, showering and changing into fresh clothes, blow drying my hair and applying my makeup. The entire time, I thought about the miracle of being able to hear simple things all over again. The thud of the water hitting the basin of the tub, the loud whir of the dryer, the sound my tube of lip gloss made, like a tiny pop, when I pulled the wand out. It was like being introduced into the world all over again.

When I'd gotten out of the shower and fixed my hair, before I'd done my makeup, I'd stared at myself in the mirror. Just like Derek's physical changes, mine were subtle, but if someone knew me well enough they were going to be obvious. My skin tone was naturally smooth, not a blemish in sight. The freckles that were barely noticeable without makeup and completely hidden with makeup were more prominent, splattering my cheeks and nose. It could have been the trick of the light, but I felt like my bottom lip looked a little fuller. My eyelashes were longer and thicker without the use of mascara, but with the makeup it almost looked like I was wearing false lashes. The five pounds that I'd thought I could stand to lose on my hips had vanished into thin air. My body shape was more like an hourglass than ever. My hair looked shinier, so dark that it almost looked like it had a blue sheen to it under the fluorescents. I looked… well, pretty. Pretty enough that I felt like the ascension knew what people thought of as beautiful. Pretty enough that, coupled with the return of my hearing, I felt comfortable being the girl that was hanging on Derek's arm.

When I returned to the bedroom, Derek was just opening the top drawer to his bedside table. He turned to look at me, a grin touching the corners of his lips. That alone made me pause as I eyed him from the doorway. I didn't quite know what he was up to, but he was up to _something_. He turned around, holding a small box in his hand. My stomach plummeted to the floor as I stood there, staring at him. What was this? He'd told me that Aces did their weddings differently, but there was something scary about seeing him holding a jewelry box and smiling at me deviously.

He chuckled. "It's not what you think." He beckoned me over. My muscles unlocked and I went to sit by him on the bed, perching on the edge like I was going to need to jump up and run at any moment. I'd just decided that I loved the guy. Jewelry was a little… I don't know, fast? But then again, our whole relationship was fast. We'd known each other for about a week and a half, and I had already moved into his house. But he'd told me that it wasn't what I thought it was. I took in a deep breath and sighed. His fingers rested on the edge of the box, drawing out my suspense.

With a smirk, he pulled open the box to reveal a flattened, beaten disk on a supple silver chain. The disk was obviously ordered to be made. It looked extremely familiar, and when I looked up to meet Derek's gaze, my eyes trailed down over the leather strips around his neck, weaved together. Hanging from it was a pendant that matched the one in the box perfectly. On it were three spokes of flame. The Stanton family crest.

"Derek," I breathed, reaching out to touch the surface of the metal. It looked like it had been dragged around, but I knew that it was done like that on purpose, to make it look worn and old. I ran my finger over the flames. I knew that this was more than just a gift for the both of us. It was his family crest – he was welcoming me into his family, proving physically that even though I hadn't married Derek yet, I was a Stanton, and I would be treated like one. "It's perfect."

I smiled as Derek removed the chain from the box, draping it around my neck. His fingers worked the clasp, and I ran my finger over the pendant. Once the necklace was securely in place, he dropped my hair over it, his fingers running down over the chain and tracing my collarbone. He leaned in to press a kiss to my cheek and breathed, lightly in my ear, "_You're_ perfect."

# # #

Derek and I had made a plan. I was going to act like I was still deaf when I first saw my mother, and wait until there was a moment were someone dropped something and I jumped in fear or when she snuck up behind me. Then, I would pretend like it was a miracle I'd heard anything. I was already prepared for a thousand different doctor's appointments after we discovered that my hearing had "miraculously" returned. It was going to be tough to make sure that I didn't reply to her outspoken words, but I would have to do my best. In the worst case scenario, I would just end up pretending like I'd been shocked that I'd heard her in the first place.

I perched in my chair, spinning back and forth ever so slightly while I stared at the computer screen, trying to figure out how to beat the level. When I first walked in with Derek, my mom had given me a long look like she couldn't believe that it was me. She'd blinked a few times, but just like Derek had assured me she would, she had written off the differences in my appearance. She hadn't even commented on the ascension changes, only telling me that my hair looked pretty. Derek asked if it was okay if he hung around, since he didn't have band practice (I had a feeling that it was a lie, and he was just skipping it like he had before.) But my mom relented and told him that it was fine and it would actually work for the better, since she had some inventory work to do and was used to having at least two people watching the store.

Which left us here, where I was glaring at the computer monitor like it was going to give me answers. Derek had resigned himself to straightening up the shop, something that he honestly wasn't used to doing. The man had hardly ever been forced to clean his own room, but he'd spent the last thirty minutes roaming the shelves of the store and making sure things were in the correct place. I tried not to watch him and instead relied on my significant senses to tell me where he was in the room. I could also depend on my hearing, now, and the little TV screen that still showcased the security footage of the store helped.

_Shoot the blue bubble to the lines on the left of the screen._ Derek told me. I glanced up from the computer screen, glaring at him over the counter. He wasn't even looking over at me.

_Butt out of my computer game._ I told him sarcastically. He actually threw a glance over his shoulder at me. I waited a minute before discreetly doing as he said and sending the blue bubble in the direction that he told me to. I could still feel the wave of I-told-you-so that came from him. I stuck my tongue out and he laughed before returning to the menial task I'd set him on doing. At least I didn't have to do it later.

It was only about three when Derek finished. He said that he was going to slip out and get something for us to snack on. He even paused in the storage room to ask my mom if I wanted anything before slipping out of the front door and heading down the sidewalk. I couldn't help but notice that he was going in the opposite direction of the coffee shop. I had a feeling that Derek wouldn't ever be taking me there for anything. It reminded me too much of Xavier, who still hadn't said a word to me since I'd kissed Derek in front of him.

I continued playing the game, finally beating the level. I could hear my mom going through inventory still; there was a lot to go through, and knowing her, she probably got distracted every now and then, or she was trying to clean it up and rearrange the whole room. I'd caught her doing that before, despite the fact that it was perfectly fine the way it was. Besides, whenever she tried to make it easier to handle, the only person that understood the new system was her. It would be me and Xavier, then, who'd return it to the way it was before until my mom decided that she wanted to redo it again.

At this point, I usually would have gotten up and gone to make sure that she wasn't making a mess out of the place, but right about that time someone stepped into the shop. I looked up from the computer, my eyes meeting someone who was, despite the years it had been since we'd really talked to each other, devastatingly familiar. Bailey's eyes roamed over the shop walls before landing on me. She almost looked like she wanted to turn around and leave.

I bit my lip and gave her a courtesy grin, my eyes returning to the computer. I couldn't imagine why she was here. When we were kids, Bailey had never showed any interest in any musical talents. She'd always been the sporty one out of the two of us, and that meant that she was out playing soccer and softball while I strummed on my guitar. She was quiet then, someone that people always underestimated before she proved that she was an athletic prodigy child.

Seeing her brought up memories, some good, some bad. The most resonating ones were the ones where she had almost stopped talking to me altogether after the accident that took my hearing. She was still friendly to me, but she hadn't sought me out for any reason. She had pulled away from me and easily become friends with the other girls that were a lot more like her – sporty girls, who spent their free time outside practicing or lounging around in the locker rooms, discussing boys and other things that pre-teen girls talk about when they're together. By the time we reached high school, Bailey and I were completely apart. Our friendship was more like a history than a present. In middle school, after I'd lost my hearing, Bailey had blossomed and I'd fallen short. It was like our personalities had been reversed, and she was suddenly the girl that had no trouble going out of her way to talk to people or do something daring. I was the girl that sat in the back of the class with a translator, and more often than not I perched on the benches during our recess period to read a book instead of playing four square or basketball.

Bailey had gone into the section that was mainly for keyboards and pianos. Bailey had never taken a lesson, at least not before we turned eleven. She could have picked it up after we went our separate ways, but she didn't seem like a piano person. A keyboard player, maybe, but it still didn't fit her persona. I watched as she looked at the different things laid out. She looked confused. A keyboardist or pianist would have no trouble understanding everything that was in front of them. So if she wasn't here for something pertaining to the instrument, what was she here for?

I probably should have gone to go get my mom, or even waited for Derek to return, but Bailey was an old friend. We may not have been friends now, but we had a history together, and that's not something that I could forget easily. Standing up, I slipped out from behind the desk and went to stand beside her. "Hi, Bailey," I said politely. "Is there anything I can help you with?" I motioned to the nook she was staring at so hard.

She looked at me like she was shocked that I was talking to her, but not in the way that she was offended I was there, just that I was trying to. She, like others that knew I was once deaf (and still believed I was) tended to act like I was suddenly a mute. It made them uncomfortable when I talked to them and they had no way to communicate back to me. "I can read lips," I said conversationally. I had to stay under the radar, so I couldn't tell anybody outside of the Stanton family that I'd had my hearing returned just yet. "So as long as you look right at me and form your words well, we'll be able to understand each other just fine." I punctuated it with a bright, sunny smile that said I was ready to help.

She turned her entire body to face me and said, "Well, um…." She ran a hand nervously over her hair, something that she'd done when we were kids. I couldn't imagine why she was so on edge. So what if we weren't friends anymore? That was eight years ago. I couldn't hold a grudge for more than a day, much less eight _years_. "I honestly don't really know. It's my roommate's birthday and she plays this piano and I don't really know what to give her."

I started to open my mouth to ask whether or not this roommate of hers liked classical or contemporary music when I noticed the black mark on the inside of her wrist. Instead of asking her about the gift she was looking to find, I asked, "Did you get a tattoo?" I knew that it shouldn't have mattered because it wasn't like she needed my permission to get one and we were old enough. But the way her eyes bugged out made me feel like I'd crossed some sort of invisible line.

She immediately tugged down on her jacket sleeve, her eyes skimming my arms. I felt my eyebrows draw together, completely confused as to why she would even be freaking out about it. So what if it was a tattoo? Derek already had the dragon in between his shoulder blades. He was planning on getting several _more_. He'd always wanted a bunch of tattoos but had held off for his mom, who said that he should wait to see what his other half felt about them. I just had the feeling that Victoria wasn't too fond of them herself. Honestly, I'd been kind of surprised when I'd learned that the dragon was the only tattoo he already had. He'd seemed like the kind of guy that would get as many of them as he wanted. Besides the dragon, the only other one he had wasn't really a tattoo, the half crest on his wrist.

I could feel the wheels in my head turning. There was something fishy about her reaction. I was still trying to figure it out when the door to the shop opened. I turned around to greet my significant, knowing immediately that it was him. He held a drink tray with one hand and was gripping a bag from the nearby gas station in the other. He stopped in the doorway, staring at me and Bailey like he'd just seen a ghost. Quickly, he set down the bag on the floor and the drinks on the shelf by the wall. He reached out to take my wrist, drawing me away from my former best friend.

Derek looked like he was instantly on the defensive. I chanced a look at Bailey. She actually looked sick, like she'd just realized something really, _really_ awful. She shook her head as her hand nervously ran up and down her wrist over the sleeve of her jacket. "Derek?" She asked.

The recognition in her voice made me turn sharply to look at Derek. I was immediately thinking the worst of him, like I usually did, even though I _knew_ I shouldn't have. He had told me that he had never dated anyone before he met me. But how, then, did he and Bailey know each other? Why did thy both look like they were going to be sick? I started to pull away from Derek to demand some answers when his fingers locked around my wrists like steel vices. It was actually less comforting and a little scary, my heat jumpstarting into a panic. Derek released one of my wrists to rub his fisted knuckles over his chest. _How do you know her?_ He asked in my head.

I glanced up at him, still confused. It didn't look like our touch was opening up the calming channel for either of us. We were both too worked up to let it work its magic. _That's Bailey. She was the one that was in an accident with me when we were eleven. How –?_

His physical voice cut me off, and I tried not to glare at him. "Bailey. What are you doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?" She asked. I could tell in her eyes that she still felt sick to her stomach, but she was trying to hide behind it by throwing up a wall of sarcasm. Her eyes looked between us and she spat out, "Don't tell me you two imprinted. Please, tell me anything but." At first she seemed angry and rude, but by the time she said the word _please_, it was like she was begging us.

"How do you know about the Aces?" I blurted, my eyes darting over the storage room door. It was still closed, my mom continuing to work despite the weirdness going on in the floor of the shop.

Bailey's eyes darted in between Derek and me, and it didn't help the feeling that Derek had lied to me about something. But he wasn't good at lying. Especially to _me_. Derek beat her to the answer, though, with a growled, "She's a Tucker."

"So?" I asked, wondering how in the world Derek knew Bailey's last name.

Derek looked down at me, his eyes filled with worry and concern. "Her clan is our rival."

**Whoa, what? Major plot twist. Teehee. I've been planning this for a while now, and I hope it was downright shocking to you readers.**

**A friendly reminder: It seems that my updates have caught up with me. I have, unfortunately, been unable to finish chapter sixteen, so it may be longer than three days for the next chapter update. I can only ask that you forgive this lapse as I try to finish up on some of the upcoming chapters. A personal work of mine has become increasingly important (I've been suffering an awful writer's block when it comes to my own stuff) and I've been reading (four books in the last three days!) Anyway, just letting you guys know not to be alarmed if the next chapter isn't out as soon as you hope.**

**You probably skip over reading this part now because you know exactly what I'm going to say: review please, thank you, Peace. (:**


	16. Frenemies

**BreeTico – Yay! I'm glad you managed to feel everything that I wanted to convey. It makes me happy. (: lol. I know that the last chapter was so completely loaded. This chapter and a few of the others to come are more fluff, but hopefully you enjoy them just as much. (;**

**Complete Chocoholic – Lol, that's okay. I would **_**love**_** to have any sort of superpower. You can say that it's sort of one of those childhood dreams that you know is never going to happen but you wish it would, anyway. And I'm glad you liked the length! This one is particularly shorter, but I needed to have a connecting chapter to take care of some of this stuff. Anyway, hopefully the next couple chapters will be longer in length!**

**cheerdebate2015 – Thank you so much! I, too, use these fanfictions as a way to tide me over until Independence. I'm a little scared about what to think when it actually comes out though, with it being the end of the series and all. Kind of heartbreaking, really. But hey, as long as I can still write about the Aces, I'll be happy. (: Romance will definitely pick up a little more in these next couple of chapters as Emily and Derek continue to get used to each other (it's so hard to remind myself that they've been together for about two weeks by this point.) Thanks for the review!**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_16: Frenemies_

"_What_?" I hissed, my hand immediately going up to tighten around the necklace Derek had given me earlier that morning, stating that I was of the Stanton clan. Instantly, I felt stupid for thinking that Derek was lying to me about anything. Of course this wasn't awkward because he and Bailey had something in between them in the past. It was ridiculous for me to think that and immediately go on the defensive because of it. I trusted Derek with my life, and I'd already given him my heart. I needed to stop second guessing myself over my own insecurities.

My fingers gripped Derek's arm so tightly that I was sure I'd left crescent-shaped marks from my fingernails in his skin. He didn't react to me, though, instead doing his best to keep himself between me and Bailey, like he believed that she was going to leap across the floor of the store to tackle me to the ground. I kept my hand on his arm, just to make sure that he was feeling a little calmer now. "Remember how I told you that our family has a rival?" He asked, bending forward so his words were more or less whispered in my ear. "The Tucker clan is our rival. And Bailey… I've known her since she was a kid, Emily. She's an Ace." He squeezed his eyes shut as he rested his forehead against mine. _I'm so sorry. You can't trust her. Her family was friends with the Watsons. They're not exactly the best people._

I swallowed hard and glanced at my former best friend. She was trapped in the corner of the store, or else I think she would have fled by now. She looked like she was trying to keep herself from puking all over the floor, which was nice of her. If I was to believe Derek and the rest of his family, Bailey and her family were completely against him. If we were Good, she was Evil. And it was hard to look at someone whose hands I once trusted with my life like she was my enemy.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her, annoyed that my voice choked on the words. I knew why, of course, but it was the only thing that I could think of to ask her.

"I couldn't tell anybody." She said. "It's not something that you go around telling people. And I wanted to tell you, Emily, I did. But it didn't matter when we were kids. It wouldn't matter until we were in our twenties. And so it wasn't so hard not to tell you." She lowered her gaze to the floor and said. "I know that the Stantons have probably told you not to trust me or my family. But Emily, we're not that bad. We still care about our family and we care about the Ace rules."

"Which is exactly why you've broken them." Derek said sarcastically. His voice was rough, challenging, and downright rude. I'd never really seen him like that. Sure, he'd been a little annoyed with his sister, but he had been teasing her or just being sarcastic with her. I could tell that if Bailey made one wrong move, Derek wouldn't hesitate to throw her out of the store. And I wasn't exaggerating when I said _throw_. I suddenly remembered the fact that Bailey was always seen in pictures with boys on the social website, where she was still considered my friend. Bailey hadn't followed the no-dating rule, which was like a major violation in their world. Derek had told me that the reason the other family, the Tuckers, hadn't gotten their imprints was because it was theorized that they'd broken the rules. Only families that had remained sacred to their rites and respectable way of life were getting their imprints back.

"I thought the imprints were gone forever. I didn't have any hope left. I have older cousins that have gotten _married_ to humans. It just wasn't that big of a deal, okay?" She asked gruffly. Shaking her head, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her coat. "This isn't information that I can hold back from my family, Derek." She warned him. She didn't sound like the Bailey I remembered, shy and sweet and generally scared of the rest of the world. I could hear the threat in her words. If the Tuckers knew about my imprint with Derek, he was going to flip out. He had said that they wanted to rewrite the rules in their favor, following in the Watsons' footsteps. If they did that…. I didn't even want to think about it.

Derek just eyed her. "Don't you dare mess with my family." He said, his arm tightening around my shoulders. "I don't care if the council is in shambles right now. We _will_ report you. And you know as well as I do how the Visionary feels about having families personally attacked."

Bailey went pale. I wondered if Derek could use the Visionary's name like that to instill fear in others, but I didn't say anything. He had said that our family was good friends with the Jacobsons, where that young girl belonged. Victoria's _brother_ was Max Jacobson, after all. I had no doubt that if we really needed the help, they would come to our aid. I just really hoped that it didn't come down to that.

"I am nothing without my family. I can't hide secrets from them." She said, almost somberly. Deep down inside, I felt confused. I figured that the rivals were going to end up being monsters, people that were deserving of Stanton hatred. But this was _Bailey_, the girl who'd I'd spent nearly every day with when we were kids. I had memories of the two of us eating ice cream, watching movies, and painting our toenails. She wasn't exactly America's Most Wanted.

And now, I had to depend on her to help make sure that Derek and I didn't fall into any trouble by the hands of her family. Just looking at her, I could tell that Bailey was second guessing herself. Like Derek, she'd never really been all that good at hiding her emotions. Granted, she was better at it than my significant was; it took a trained eye to read what was crossing her face, but I knew her pretty well. She wasn't comfortable with the fact that we were now considered enemies. When she figured out that I could see her tattoo, that I had imprinted with Derek, she didn't look happy that she had someone to torture. She looked like she'd been truly upset that it was me – and I still let myself believe that it was because she didn't want to turn her back against me any more than she already had.

"I suggest you leave." Derek said darkly. Without looking back up at us, Bailey slid past me. Derek's fingers tightened on my arm and pulled me away from her as she stepped out of the front door and onto the sidewalk, disappearing into the chaos that was Chicago.

Right about that time, my mom opened up the storage room door. We both looked over our shoulders at her. She looked in between us and said, "Has anybody come in?"

Derek and I looked at each other for a moment and shook our heads at the same time.

# # #

When we got back home after my shift, everyone, including Carissa, was waiting to see us. They were excited about our ascensions, excited about our abilities, and excited about the fact that Derek had healed me and my hearing had returned. Victoria had made an extravagant array of desserts to celebrate. Derek had been wondering earlier in the evening whether or not he should call his father and let him know that the Tuckers knew about our imprint, but apparently he hadn't. The rest of his family was all too excited, and while we were both ecstatic that we'd taken a step forward in our imprint, neither of us were in the mood to celebrate. I had just discovered that my childhood best friend was my new arch enemy. It wasn't exactly something that I could punctuate with brownies.

"Oh, Emily!" Victoria exclaimed when she saw me step into the house in front of my significant. She rushed forward, chocolate dotting her fingertips. She gave me a hug without touching me and pulled back with a huge grin on her face. "Compulsion! I haven't heard of that coming around in such a long time." She gave me a smile that said she was truly happy about it. I was sort of shocked, though, that she hadn't been worried that I would maybe force her into doing something. Derek hugged his mom when she went to embrace him, but he was looking at me over her shoulder, telling me to stop thinking that way.

Victoria didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with the two of us, though I sort of felt like the floor had been torn out from underneath me. Derek, who wore his heart on his sleeve, looked a little on the miserable side, but nobody acknowledged that as she led us into the kitchen. The whole place was covered in chocolate things – brownies, cupcakes, pudding, ice cream, and there was even a cherry cobbler. It looked like she had gone all out with the help of Madison, who was wearing an apron and had a smear of flour on her cheek.

"Hi!" She exclaimed when we walked in. She took one look at the two of us, though, and her smile started to fall. Her eyebrows drew together as she looked at me, snuggled against Derek, his arm draped over my shoulder, squeezing me into his side. She was the only one that could tell that everything wasn't perfect. "What's wrong?" She asked.

At the sound of her words, everyone moving around us stopped. Victoria was holding a pan full of cookies, Robert paused in straightening his tie, and Jack had half a brownie stuffed into his mouth. I bit down on my lip hard enough to make it bleed. Tears pricked my eyes, dampening my lashes and blurring my vision. The moment the first tear started to fall, Derek turned, blocking me from the rest of his family. I dropped my head and he cupped my face in his hands, fingers tangling in my hair. His forehead rested against mine. "Give us a minute," he said to his family. He stood there for a moment before withdrawing from me, his hand securely on the back of my neck as he led me away from the kitchen.

He pushed me into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He released me, then, turning to pull a washcloth from the towel cabinet. He ran it under the cold water in the sink, pausing to squeeze out the excess water before leaning forward and carefully smoothing the cool cloth underneath my eyes. I took in a shaky breath, my chest hurting with the effort of keeping my sob back. Derek pressed the washcloth to my forehead, as if I had a fever.

I pulled away from him to wipe the side of my finger underneath my eyes. I was being ridiculous, crying about Bailey. We hadn't even been real friends for eight years. But she was my best friend from childhood, and she knew all of my eleven-year-old self's fears, hopes, and dreams. And I knew hers. Or, at least, I thought I did. She had a whole facet of her life that she hadn't told me about. But maybe it wasn't the fact that she had lied to me, or even that it was Bailey, but it was the fact that she was the enemy, and the enemy knew our secret. Derek had been already bent on keeping me protected, and that's when the Tuckers had no idea that we were imprinted. Now that we had ascended, I had the feeling that we could care for ourselves now. But it was still the principle of it all. We were supposed to imprint and have a wondrous, magical life together. Instead, we were both worried for the other's safety.

Derek tossed the rag onto the counter and ran the back of his hand over my cheek, both of us getting a jolt of warmth. He leaned forward so his lips were at my ear. "I'm so sorry, Emily. If I had known… I would have let you know sooner, so you weren't blindsided. But I wish you didn't have to know at all." As he moved, his nose brushed along my jawline, and I took in a breath of air. The tight feeling in my chest started to disappear as he leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to my lips, his hand sliding over my neck, thumb gently pressing against my throat, where he could probably feel my pulse.

When he pulled back, he gave me a slight, heartbroken smile. Answering my inner questions, he murmured, "We're going to continue on with our lives. We're not going to let Bailey or her family ruin anything. We're going to be ourselves, you and me. We're going to go out to eat and go listen to music and do whatever we want."

I smiled, giving off a girlish sobbing laugh. A single tear escaped, running down my cheek. He swiped his thumb over it, erasing it from my skin. "Okay," I managed to say. "Okay, we'll be you and me." As I said it, I couldn't help but giggle. I wondered if he did that on purpose.

"Good. In that case, you're coming to band practice tomorrow."

"Is it actually band practice, or are you guys going to sit around and watch movies?" I questioned, pushing Bailey and her family to the back of my mind. Derek was right. I couldn't let them linger over everything I did. I couldn't worry about them. And I couldn't cry about them. I _wouldn't_ cry about them. I punctuated my question with a smile, determined to show him that I wasn't going to let the Tucker clan hang over my head like a bad thundercloud.

He grinned easily. "Who knows? We'll find out tomorrow when we actually get there." He gave me a quick wink. I laughed, biting down on my lip to keep from being too loud. He grinned, pressed his lips to my forehead, and reached for the bathroom door. He pulled it open and, with his fingers gently wrapped around my wrist, led me into the hallway.

Everyone was still in the kitchen, apparently awaiting our return. Jack had continued to eat, but he was the only one. Victoria had pulled out a second pan of cookies from the oven and was seated at the table. As soon as we stepped in, all conversation stopped. They made it pretty obvious that they were talking about me and Derek and what I'd started crying for. I cleared my throat, prepared to tell them everything, about how Bailey and I were best friends when we were kids, and how I'd only discovered today that we were destined to be pitted against each other.

But Derek beat me to it. "The Tuckers," he said calmly. "We met Bailey today." He glanced over at me, and I heard his voice say, _Do you want to tell them, or do you want me to?_

_Go ahead_, I said back, looking into his eyes. They'd drawn me in at first, and one look at them could center me. _You're doing a pretty good job at it._ I gave him an easy grin.

Looking at his family, he said, "Emily and Bailey were best friends when they were kids. I never saw any pictures with her in them. She didn't know Bailey was an Ace. I never told her the last name of our rivals, and she only called Bailey by first name. Bailey Tucker came to mind, but I didn't think that it would beat the odds," he admitted.

"Oh, you poor thing," Victoria breathed, standing up from the table. She came forward and grabbed me up in a hug, despite the fact that Derek wouldn't let go of my hand. I hugged her back as best as I could, though, as she embraced me. I could pick up the smell of her perfume, not unlike the floral scent my own mother wore daily. She let go of me and rushed to the plate of brownies, offering it up to me. "Here, eat some chocolate. Chocolate heals all wounds," she insisted.

"Or your significant," Derek replied, his hand releasing mine so he could drape his arm around my waist. "Thanks, mom," he added, plucking a brownie from the plate.

She grinned at the two of us. "Well, let's push them to the back of our minds and celebrate your ascensions. These are very important, you know. I've already seen Derek's ability, and it nearly blew me away. I thought that talking to animals like me or dealing with engines like Robert were amazing." She said, "But_ you_ two, now those are some interesting abilities. It seems that everything is changing with the return of our Visionary." She grinned widely.

Madison smiled at me over her mom's shoulder. "I made the cookies," she crowed, "from scratch!"

"Then I won't eat a cookie," Derek replied. His mom gave him a look that said not to antagonize his younger sister. I swore up and down that all of the Stantons were kids at heart. I wondered if that meant that I was a kid at heart, too. Probably, since I stooped down to their level more often than not when we got into our teasing arguments.

"I will," I said, plucking one from the top. It was still warm in the middle, just like I liked it. I smirked at Derek as I took a bite of it, relishing the still-melted chocolate chips. The others seemed to converge on the desserts that Victoria had laid out – far too many, we'd be eating some after dinner for at least a week, if not longer. I took another bite, warm chocolate sticking my lower lip. I licked it off just in time for Derek to look down at me. He got a devious grin on his face as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine almost forcefully.

_Mm, you taste like chocolate._ He said, his voice slipping through my mind.

I tried not to laugh. _We're in front of your family._ I knew I was laughing hard in my mind, but that didn't mean that I wasn't embarrassed, because I was. But I didn't stop him. He pulled back for a second before giving me another short kiss and reaching for a brownie.

I reached into the fridge for a soda as Jack sidled up to me, reaching around me for the container of lemonade. I waited until he got the container out before closing the fridge door. As I did, Jack leaned onto my shoulder, nearly resting his chin there. My imprint flared up inside, and I made a slight movement away from him on instinct. I knew Jack was just teasing me and his brother, after all. He didn't really mean anything. "I told you that you were pretty persuasive," he said quietly. I burst into laughter, nearly dropping my soda on the ground.

# # #

I woke up to the sound of an alarm. I hadn't used an audible alarm since I was eleven, and the blaring this early in the morning was enough to make my skull pound. Derek shifted, throwing out an arm to hit the snooze button. I groaned and pulled the sheets up over my head. Derek just laughed, squeezing my side for a moment before rolling out of bed. I heard him moving around the room, but I didn't even try to pinpoint where he was. I only had a second of lying there, though, before two hands gripped the blanket at my feet and pulled, ripping out of my hands.

"_Derek_," I moaned, grabbing a nearby pillow and throwing it at him. He caught it easily, throwing it on the end of the bed. I squeezed my eyes shut as he sat down next to me, the mattress bowing underneath his weight. He leaned over me, blocking the sunlight coming in from his window despite the dark curtain.

"Emily, sweetheart," he crooned in my ear. It sent shivers down my spine, but I squeezed my eyes shut, determined not to open them. He had a hand pressed down on the mattress on either side of me, so I had to stay right where I was, lying on my back, facing him. "It's time for you to wake up. You've got the early shift at your mom's shop."

"I don't want to go," I complained, pressing my palms to my eyes. His fingers touched my cheek, tilting my chin up. I pressed my lips into a thin line, trying not to smile. He chuckled, waiting until I couldn't help but crack a grin before pressing his lips to mine. He never seemed to care about the fact that even though we were Aces, we still had to think about morning breath.

"Come on," he said, sliding an arm underneath my back and pulling me up to his chest. "I'll go with you. And then we can go to lunch and a movie before heading to band practice." I groaned, dropping my head onto his chest. I wasn't tired at all, but I didn't want to get up this early and go to work when I could be sleeping next to my significant.

"Promise?" I muttered into his undershirt.

"I don't think I could ever make a promise to you and not keep it," he replied. His voice turned teasing as he said, "Now, quit playing your cute sleepy girlfriend act and get up. You've got to beat Madison to the shower or else you're not going to get one this morning."

I snuggled up against his chest for a moment longer before pulling back and kissing him just underneath his jaw. Scrambling to get out from underneath the blanket, I stepped out of bed and went to the dresser, pulling open the drawers and collecting my change of clothes. I slipped out of the hall and into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind me.

After a quick shower, I pulled on my change of clothes and used Madison's hair dryer, combing through my hair. I was still trying to get used to the unreal shine it naturally had. Since I knew Madison had to be waiting for the use of the bathroom, I opened the door and caught sight of her sitting on the floor next to my bedroom door, a bowl of cereal in her hands.

"_Hola_, _chica_," she said, tipping the bowl back to drink the milk. "I was wondering when you were going to make your grand exit. Did I ever tell you how pretty your hair looks now? I mean, it looked pretty before, but it's _super_ shiny now." She stood up, grabbing her bowl in the process. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got school to get to." She grinned and slipped by me, closing the bathroom door behind her.

With my camisole and pajama shorts in my arms, I pushed open the bedroom door. Derek was sitting on the edge of the bed, phone in hand. He'd changed into a soft cotton heather gray shirt with a V-neck. I smiled at it; my significant loved V-necks as much as I did, maybe even more. And where some people found it girlish, I found it extremely adorable. I dropped my clothes into the laundry basket in the corner of the room and stood in front of the double-sided mirror on top of the dresser, applying my mascara and lip gloss. Derek had already made his hair lie flat, swooping over his eyes. He tossed his phone onto the bed and pulled on his boots, lacing them up as I dug for my shiny gold sandals.

"Well come on, then," I teased from the doorway after slipping on my shoes. "Let's go. We've got work to get to."

# # #

I leaned back in my seat, propping my feet up on the counter as I stared out over the floor of the room. Derek was in the storage room trying to make sense of the rearranging my mom had done. While she was out getting coffee for herself and Derek, I was stuck sitting out on the floor just in case any customers arrived. I wanted to be back in the storage room with my significant, arranging boxes and making sure that labels were in place instead of playing with the height lever on my seat and twirling a piece of hair around my finger.

The bell above the door chimed. On instinct, I looked up to see who it was, forgetting that I was supposed to be pretending that I couldn't hear anything. Luckily, my mom was trying to drop her car keys into her purse while carrying two cups of coffee. She'd even bought me a bag of candy. And I didn't miss the fact that my mom had done exactly as my significant had, going to the nearby gas station for fortification instead of the coffee shop that Xavier frequented.

"Derek!" I called over my shoulder, glancing back at the storage room door. It swung open without as much as a squeak, though my mom had once complained that it was loud and creaky. I figured that at some point she'd gotten around to oiling it because I hadn't heard any noise from it. He glanced out, immediately on the defensive. I rolled my eyes at him, reminding him of what he'd told me – _We'll be ourselves, you and me, and we're not going to worry about the Tuckers._ I gave him a look to drive my point home as he sidled up to the desk, taking the coffee my mom offered with a thank you. I was surprised that my mom wasn't bothered by Derek requesting to stay with me at work once again. She had mentioned to me, when Derek was in the storage room and she was leaving to get the coffee, that she thought we spent an unusual amount of time together, but she hadn't told Derek that he had to leave. All she did was joke that maybe she should put him on the payroll. Her tone had been teasing, but I understood what she meant by that – she was worried that we were too close, always together, with absolutely no separation. She'd told me at some point that couples needed to have a regular amount of separation or else they'd get fed up with each other. I couldn't tell her that Derek and I weren't exactly a normal couple or that our lives and welfare basically stemmed from whether or not we were in close contact, so I'd kept my mouth shut.

Derek glanced at me as he took a sip of his coffee. _It's my job to worry about you_. I sneered at him when my mom turned her back to us and he smiled, grinning from ear to ear. He knew he'd won this round because I couldn't come up with a rebuttal to a need that was woven into the very fiber of his being. Picking up on my thoughts, he said, _Derek, one. Emily, zero._

_More like 'Derek, one. Emily, five thousand._'

_How'd you come up with that one?_ He asked, his mental voice feigning disgust. My mom gave him a look and we realized that we were making faces at each other to accommodate our words. He quickly shot off a smile her way and turned his back to me, saying something out loud about finishing up in the storage room.

_I'll always win when it comes to you_, I teased, _because you love me oh so much._

_You've got something right there; I do love you._

_And I love you too, you overgrown child._

_Ouch, the insults._ I held back a snicker. In my mind's eye, I could see Derek set his coffee cup down on the counter in the storage room. I could also taste the bitter sting of caffeine on my tongue. Everything looked a little strange from his perspective, since he was so much taller than I was. Withdrawing from his mind, I opened up my bag of candy and snacked on the chocolates. My eyes glanced at the clock in the bottom corner of the computer screen. My shift ended in approximately ten minutes. With a sigh, I reached down to get my book from my bag. Just as I was reaching for it, the chime above the door sounded for a second time.

"Ms. Bryson?" I froze at the sound of the voice. I had never _heard_ it before, but I recognized it immediately. There was only one person that I could ever imagine sounding like that, a male who would be here at around twelve, always a few minutes early, never a minute late. I bit down on my lip, hearing the storage room door glide open. Derek had felt my heartbeat spike.

I sat up so straight in the chair that I startled both of them. Xavier, coffee in hand, glanced at the two of us. His upper lip curled in slight disgust as he shook his head and headed straight to my mom's office. He knocked on the door. I could hear her muffled answer as he twisted the knob and let himself inside. I dropped my book into my purse and glanced at Derek. I'd never had someone be that mad at me before.

_Forget about him, Emily. If he can't see past his embarrassment to see how wonderful you are, it's his loss. You don't need to worry about him more than you already are._ As he said the words, I could feel a bit of jealousy running underneath. I liked the fact that he wanted to prove to Xavier that I was his. But underneath _that_ was the truth. I needed to stop worrying about Xavier. When he was ready, he would come back around again, just like he always did. Sure, this was colossal, the maddest he'd ever been at me before, but there would have to be an end to it eventually.

I sighed, and finished out the last ten minutes in my shift, where Xavier spent all of his time locked in my mom's office (which, had it been anyone else, would have been strange.) I knocked on the door and both of them looked up at me through the glass. I waved a goodbye, directing most of it at my mom before slipping back out onto the floor and tossing the bag over my shoulder.

Derek nearly always drove the Trans Am. It was either that, or his bike. I had the feeling that both of them were exclusively his, but he'd never said anything about it. He was being modest, I assumed. Their entire family had at least one car per person, if not two – including Madison, who only had a driver's permit. Since I'd donned a black pleated skirt, Derek had opted for the Trans Am. Or maybe he just grabbed that set of keys because he knew I wasn't looking forward to any day where I would have to ride that bike with a skirt on. It was _not_ going to come unless it was inevitable.

Sliding into the car, I dropped my purse onto the ground and scooted across the bench seat, buckling up in the middle instead of at the far window, where I usually sat. What was the point in it, anyway? This made it easier for me to be close to Derek. I told myself that it was just because I wanted to be able to reach him easily if either one of us needed a calming dose, but in reality I just wanted to be as close to him as possible for as long as possible. He didn't seem to mind as he buckled up and turned the key in the ignition.

**Okay, so this is a shorter chapter, since I cut out the last 2,000 words or so of this one to make it start the next one (which I hope you are eagerly awaiting.) Here's to hoping that the next chapter is longer, perhaps? (;**

**Thank you so, so much for taking the time to read this. I would really appreciate a review. Don't forget that you **_**don't**_** have to have an account, so please take the time to leave one for me in the box below. Once again, I thank you. Peace (:**


	17. Triple Threat Touchdowns

**BreeTico – Yep, I figured that Derek was level-headed enough that he wouldn't totally lose it (sort of like Nick did in **_**Flaws & Love**_**.) Bailey and her family aren't as ruthless as the Watsons because I don't think anyone could be as ruthless as the Watsons, but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.**

**cheerdebate2015 – Honestly, I literally laughed out loud reading your review. I'm still not sure as to why, but I certainly giggled like a maniac. Don't worry, I tend to post in a healthy four-day pattern.**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_17: Triple Threat Touchdowns_

Derek took me to an Indian place for lunch, where all of the food had been spicy enough to make my eyes water. Like a true other half, he just laughed at me as I fanned my mouth and sucked down glass after glass of water despite the fact that they weren't helping. After that, we'd gone to an action-packed movie about marines overseas, fighting against some type of robot monsters. It was the first time that I'd been to a movie theatre in years, and Derek did his best to make the experience truly fit – he'd bought us large sodas and a huge container of popcorn, which he covered in enough butter to give me cholesterol problems for the next year or so. By the time we got to our seats, he'd spent enough on snacks and refreshments to make up someone's inheritance.

By the time four o' clock came around and the band members were getting together, I was stuffed with popcorn, butter, and soda. Derek kept his arm around me as he led me to the car. It was technically a date with lunch and a movie, and it was the very first one that I'd ever been on.

Derek said that they always held practice at a rent house, where two of the band members were roommates. The living room, he said, was decked out with a huge TV and the band's instruments. The rest of the stuff sat stacked in the garage, where neither of the guys parked. It was basically _the_ place for Derek and his friends to hang out, since it was void of parental authority.

We drove a part of Chicago that was almost like an exact replica of my mom's neighborhood. There were sidewalk- and tree-lined streets, houses that stood between one and two stories tall, and there were little kids out playing in the yard or using the street as their own personal baseball diamond. It was like the very _definition_ of suburbia. I couldn't help but wonder how two college-aged guys managed to pay rent in a place like this, much less how they'd even come to the decision to live here instead of closer in town, where life was always moving on fast forward.

Derek pulled up to the curb in front of a squat redbrick house with a white-painted door that had a stained-glass design in the window. The garage door was cracked about an inch, and there was a monstrous bush in the front yard. "This is where your friends live?" I asked, leaning against my window and peering out, as if I was suddenly going to see something that said that the place specifically belonged to college guys. "It looks like a place that my grandmother could live." I mused out loud.

Derek chuckled. "That's exactly what I said. Except for the fact that my grandma would never be caught around here," he continued, leaning back in his seat. I laughed as he twisted the keys back, turning off the car's engine. The rumbling immediately stopped and he looked over at me, raising his eyebrows meaningfully. "Let's go meet the band."

With a heavy, exaggerated sigh to try and cover up my sudden burst in anxiety, I pushed open the car door. My side just happened to be on the same side of the street as the house. As I brushed out my skirt, I looked over the front of the place. It didn't look particularly intimidating, not like Derek's house did. This place looked… comfortable, like my grandmother would be coming to the door and offering me a plate of her famous chocolate peanut butter cookies. Derek came around the front of the Trans Am and offered me his hand. Weaving our fingers together, I let him lead me up the front walk to the door.

Derek didn't knock or anything. He just twisted the knob and let it swing open. _You don't knock?_ I asked, unable to hide my surprise. I'd never had a friend that I was comfortable with enough that I could just walk into their house unannounced; and none of my friends had done that to me. Bailey and I – best friends for nearly ten years when I was a kid – were the picture of formality. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. Tucker, I always knocked on their door, and I usually asked whether or not I could use the restroom, even after I knew the layout of Bailey's house like the back of my hand.

_Johnny and PJ never lock it._ He replied, stepping inside. I stayed behind him, as if I was afraid something was going to jump out and get me.

Inside, it _looked_ like a bunch of college-aged guys lived here. Outside it was picturesque, the cover of a magazine or a photo in a newspaper article, but inside it was a mess. Pizza boxes were stacked haphazardly in the corners of the room. Paper plates, empty soda and beer cans, and socks were spread out all over the place. _Excuse the mess,_ Derek said in my mind. I could tell that he was thinking about my need to organize things when I got stressed, and he was wondering if I would ever have enough anxiety without him to clean up Johnny and PJ's place.

I started to come back with a snarky answer when I saw the collection of yard sale armchairs centered around a low table that had obviously seen its fair share of beer cans. Sitting against the far wall was a long aquarium, filled with dark wooden bark and a collection of small branches. The top part had a series of bricks sitting on top, half of them fallen over and spread against the glass screen. The glass looked a little foggy, as if there was a high humidity in there. "Is that a _snake_?" I whispered.

"Her name's Sarah," Derek replied in a low voice, eyeing me. He probably already knew that snakes weren't my favorite animals on earth. They ranked higher on my list of acceptable creatures than spiders, cockroaches, and sharks, but they were still creepy with their slithering armless bodies and fangs.

"The snake's name is Sarah," I repeated, staring at the tank. Inside was a bright green thing, coiled on top of a branch, its sides looping down to hang below it. I could already imagine it trying to bite me. Or maybe, since I doubted it was venomous, it was one of those types that crushed their prey to death by squeezing the life out of it. How pleasant.

Derek turned just a little to face me, drawing me closer. "Hey," he breathed, "if it bothers you –"

"No," I said, cutting him off. "Just don't let it touch me, and we'll be fine." I said, giving him a reassuring smile. As long as that snake stayed in the confines of its cage while I was here, I would be able to breathe. My eyes stayed on it, though, as Derek pulled me past the house's small foyer and into the living room, where I could hear voices.

"Derek, my man!" Someone called out as Derek neared the open doorway. Standing behind him, I was practically hidden from view. It seemed that, aside from Derek's ability to make himself go invisible and camouflage other people, he was just good at hiding me in general, thanks to his broad stature. "I heard the door. Where have you been?"

"I think _that's_ where he's been," said a voice directly to my right. I jumped – I hadn't heard anybody come to my side. I looked up and recognized one of the guys from the band's internet page. He was, no doubt, the lead singer. He had charming good looks, someone who would be the last person I would expect to see in a band. His hair was ashy blonde, cut short, and he wore a T-shirt and jeans. Looking down at his feet, I noticed that he wasn't wearing shoes or socks, and for a moment I wondered if he was the one that left his socks all over the house. He looked like he belonged to a football team with his stature.

Derek's arm came around me protectively, pulling me into his side. _That's PJ. The other one's Johnny._ I looked over PJ and he looked over me, both of us sizing up the other. I could tell, easily, that he was doing that guy thing to see what I was doing hanging around with one of his best friends; or, more like it, what one of his best friends was doing hanging around me. Our eyes locked, and I knew instantly that we were playing a game, seeing who would crack first. After a good second of silence, I gave him my most dazzling smile and said, "I'm Emily. You must be PJ."

PJ seemed a little taken aback that I knew who he was, but after a second, he probably attributed it to me being some sort of groupie that had finally got her hands on Derek. Around Derek, where Johnny was (I still hadn't seen him, so I assumed that he hadn't seen me) I heard, "_Whoa_. Derek's got a _chick_?" Derek pulled me forward a little bit, right into the line of sight of Johnny and the thin, busty girl sitting next to him. "Finally. I was starting to think my man bat for the other team." The girl sitting next to him snapped out her hand, smacking Johnny right across the chest.

I recognized Johnny as the bassist – his hair was dyed black and blue, short on the sides and long on the top. His bottom lip was pierced, and there was a bar that went through his eyebrow with two shiny silver balls on either end. The girl beside him must have been the girlfriend that Jack kept mentioning. She was certainly pretty, thin in the waist and curvy where it counted. Her hair was curled and dark blonde, probably with the help of Lady Clairol, but she was pretty nonetheless, with her sparkling blue eyes and quick smile. "Ignore him," she said easily. "I'm his girlfriend, Tory."

"Emily," I said in return. Derek's arm tightened around me momentarily before releasing me completely. PJ held out a hand and Derek took it. They pulled together to do that weird arm-hug man thing, shaking once before pulling apart.

Johnny vaulted off the couch and stepped around Tory, reaching out for my hand. I took it, expecting a quick shake. But he drew me forward, away from Derek, lifting his arm and making me spin around. He made an appreciative sound, which left me feeling a little exposed, for some reason. Tory snorted and shook her head, as if this was something Johnny did to other girls on a regular basis, and something that she had come to expect from him and dutifully ignore. His eyes skimmed over me, and I bit down on my lip. "You know, Derek's never had a chick. I've known this kid for at least ten years, and he's _never_ had a girlfriend. So, what did _you_ do to get him to pay a little attention to you?" His eyes glowed almost deviously.

"Come on, Johnny." Derek said suddenly, giving his friend a little shove. "Leave her alone."

"Nah, seriously, man," Johnny said, giving Derek a little shove back. "What is it?" He asked me, looking down at me.

Tory rolled her eyes next to him. Looping an arm around his, she pulled him away and said, "Come on, let's get you something to drink. You can harass Derek and Emily later." She said, pulling Johnny into the kitchen.

PJ eyed me from where he stood, as if he wasn't sure that he trusted me. "So, how'd you meet Derek?" He asked suddenly. I knew, from countless books, that there's always a best friend that plays the wingman or wingwoman, and when their best friend gets serious with someone, it's their job to scout them out. My mom had done that to Derek, as had my dad. And now, it looked like PJ was going to do it to me.

Keeping with the same lie that we'd been telling my friends and family, I said, "Deaf support group meeting," forgetting the fact that I was no longer deaf and had no reason to be there.

PJ made a face. "What?"

_Oh, my God._ I breathed in my mind. _I can't believe that I just said that._ I told Derek, doing my best not to let my eyes dart to him. I'd learned that it became obvious that we were talking to each other when we looked at each other while speaking in our minds. Any Ace would know what we were doing, but to a regular human, we'd look awkward, out of place, and they would definitely remember it as something strange.

_It's okay. Just tell them that you were there because of your partial deafness or something, and I'll tell him about my fake deaf grandfather that he's never met._ Derek said. His hand touched the small of my back. I could feel the warmth of his touch through the fabric of my shirt. It gave me a good dose of comfort and encouragement.

"I'm partially deaf," I spit out, trying to think of a way to form it correctly. I wanted to sound realistic, and so I just spouted a story. "I was in an accident when I was a kid, and for a while I didn't have much hearing. I, um, have been getting my hearing back slowly but surely." I couldn't help but glance at Derek for acceptance. His fingers ran across my back, barely noticeable to anybody but me.

"Really?" PJ asked. His eyes darted over to Derek, who just gave a slight nod. "So… can you hear me?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied with a grin. "Like I said, lately I've been getting my hearing back."

PJ nodded. But he kept his lips shut, like he was nervous. He'd set out with a plan to make sure that I wasn't going to break Derek's heart, and with one answer, I'd put him back in his place. Derek's arm slipped around my waist, pulling me into his side. "So, um, how long have you two been together?"

I glanced up at Derek. We'd told my mom that we'd been together for five or six months. She hadn't seemed shocked that I hadn't introduced him to her before, but I didn't know if Derek's friends would think the same thing. Besides that, we needed a time period that would make sense with us with the way that we were always hanging on each other. And, I had no idea if PJ, Johnny, and Tory would ever meet my parents and be able to find out if we'd told them the exact same thing. _What should we say?_

_Exactly what we told your mom. We met five or six months ago, but we only decided to be a couple recently._ He replied.

_Ooh, I like it. Vague,_ I replied, trying not to smile as PJ looked at me questioningly, waiting for an answer. I cleared my throat and said, "I met him what, five or six months ago? Anyway, we've been friends for a while, and we only recently decided to try dating." I gave my significant a smile over my shoulder. He grinned back.

PJ nodded, and I had the feeling that he was trying to think of something else to ask me (did Derek feel like this when my parents were interrogating him?) when the front door behind us opened. All three of us turned to face the door. The guy that had to be the drummer – he was larger, barrel-chested and a little heavier set than the other guys, with a cropped dark faux hawk – stepped in the room. He nodded to PJ and opened his mouth to greet his band mates when his eyes landed on me. His jaw snapped shut, and he eyed me almost nervously.

Derek turned me away from PJ. "Emily, this is our drummer, Tank. Tank," he said, directing his voice to the drummer whose eyes were still glued to me. I could tell that my significant was a little wary about the way he was looking at me. I could mentally tell that Derek knew that his friend's expression was his _interested_ face. "This is my _girlfriend_, Emily."

I gave him an easy smile, not wanting to seem too eager to meet him. "Hi," I said, weaving my fingers with Derek's. "Nice to meet you."

Tank cleared his throat. "You too," he said a little gruffly. His eyes shot to PJ, who gave an almost imperceptible nod. He fist-bumped Derek as he passed on his way to the kitchen, giving me an easy smile as he slid by.

PJ shook out his shoulders and said, "Well, I think we're going to try for an actual practice today. We've got that gig coming up next weekend." His eyes darted over to me before he slipped away and headed towards where everyone else was gathered in the kitchen, rubbing the back of his neck.

_Why are they all looking at me like I have two heads?_ I asked Derek. I tossed my gaze towards the open doorway of the kitchen. I could imagine that they were all talking about me, the intruder on their home. They probably didn't mean to make it so obvious, or to make me feel like I was out in the place, but they did.

_They've never seen me with anyone, Emily._ Derek said calmly, his hand squeezing mine briefly. My eyes returned to his, and he gave me a cute half-grin. _Not only are they probably wondering what makes you so special, but I think Tank has a crush on you. You're exactly the type of girl he sees in the crowd, and if she's a groupie, he's all for it._ I made a face and was congratulated with a mental chuckle that caressed my mind. _But if he tries anything at all, I'll put him in his place._

_You're so cute when you're jealous._ I smirked. Derek smirked back, but he couldn't hide the genuine smile underneath. His free hand came up to brush my cheek. I could feel my entire body relax at his touch. I would have figured that, by now, I would be used to it. It had technically only been two weeks that we'd been together, but it felt like an eternity. I felt like I'd known Derek my entire life. I couldn't imagine a day without him. But I still wasn't used to his touch, or the way his voice made me feel, or the flutter of my heart when he looked at me.

_I wouldn't have to be so jealous if you would stop being so gorgeous._

I choked out a laugh. I hadn't really been aware of it, but while we'd been talking in our minds, the two of us had drifted a little closer to the other. He was slow close that I didn't have to raise my voice more than a whisper. "Nice save," I told him quietly, my lips barely moving.

Derek made a noise in reply before leaning forward and kissing me almost forcefully. His grip on my hand tightened. His other hand came up to brush through my hair, fingers intertwining with thick chunks of black-blue strands. As always, I could feel it all the way into my toes, like he was shocking me. But it was a pleasant energy hum that made me react in ways that I would have never reacted before. My hands slid effortlessly inside his leather jacket, fingers looping in the belt loops of his jeans. I leaned towards him so much that he had to take a step backwards, one hand pressing against the wall to keep us balanced. He bit down a little on my lower lip, teasing me and escalating the entire thing. I couldn't help but let out a tiny noise. Our hands separated, his going to my lower back, pulling me closer to him.

We continued to make out in the corner of the room for a little while longer, my skin burning hot. I pulled away to breathe and his lips dropped to my neck, smoothing across my collarbone. "Derek," I whispered, "don't you have to go to band practice?" He chuckled in reply, his fingers tightening on my back for a moment before releasing me completely. I unwound my grasp from his belt loops, pausing to tug on the hem of his jacket and straighten out the front lapel. I could still feel his kiss on my lips, my knees still a little weak. How he managed to do that to me, I still wasn't sure.

I cleared my throat a little bit, biting down on my lower lip as I reached up instinctively and pushed his hair out of his eyes. One thing that I loved about Derek was that he _let_ me straighten his jacket and mess with his hair. He even looked like he sort of enjoyed it. I couldn't hide the smile tugging at the edges of my lips. "Go on," I told him, giving him a gentle shove towards the kitchen. "You need to practice for your gig next weekend."

He gave me a smirk, reaching back to intertwine our fingers before leading me to the kitchen. He left me in the care of Tory with instructions not to tell me too many embarrassing stories about himself, and then he and the guys slipped out into the garage where all of their equipment was. They were, truly, a garage band. I bit my lip as I watched them disappear into the garage. Tory pulled open the fridge and reached inside, holding several amber-brown bottles by the neck in a single hand. She offered one to me, and I shook my head. "Um, no thanks. I don't drink."

"Just like Derek," she replied with a smile, setting them down on the counter. With an almost scary ease, she popped the caps off of all of them without using a bottle cap opener or even wrapping it with the hem of her shirt. "There are also sodas and water bottles if you want something." She said, nodding towards the now-closed fridge. "Being here basically ensures you free food. Technically, the guys wouldn't even have anything if I didn't force Johnny and PJ to go farther than the corner store to grocery shop." She gave me an easy smile, trying to show me that she was friendly and outgoing, not someone to be feared.

I could feel Derek peeking in on me while he was supposed to be focusing on playing his guitar. I had learned that I unconsciously kept my mind right on the edges of his, rarely ever pulling completely into myself. I always left myself open to him. And when his defenses were down, like now, I was sort of sucked into his mind. It made me understand the reasons that he had kept a careful distance mentally. If everything I felt he felt double, then I would probably keep a farther distance than he did.

As I moved towards the fridge, Tory brought one of the bottles to her lips, taking a sip. She watched me, though, as I took out a soda and scanned the shelves for what I knew was Derek's favorite – orange soda. On the very bottom shelf was a box of bright orange caffeine and carbonation. I grabbed one of them, setting it on the counter as I popped the tab on mine. Tory looked like she approved; I realized that she was waiting to see if I knew what Derek would have wanted. She was _testing_ me.

I bit down on my lip to hide my smile as Tory leaned against the counter. "So," she said, "the guys put me up to seeing if you're good for our Derek." I blinked at how blunt she was. I would have expected her to be more like PJ, a little awkward, definitely quiet, searching for the right words to say to me. And even though Tory's way of saying things without sugarcoating them was worse than me and Derek combined, I found that I liked her. "But I'm not going to just ask you random questions and read into your answer. I'm just going to be honest with you."

I nodded, setting down the can of soda, staring at the dark liquid that still clung to the rim. I steeled myself for the best friend's speech. I was prepared to hear that she would personally take me down if I ever disappointed Derek – not that a moment like that would ever happen, but still.

Tory took another drink and met my eyes. "I met Derek about five years ago. Believe it or not, Johnny and I met in high school, our freshman year. We were instantly friends, and we started dating as sophomores. I've basically grown up with these guys. They're sort of like my brothers." She shrugged, brushing a chunk of blonde hair behind her ear. "I've seen the ups-and-downs in Johnny's life. I've seen Tank go through heartbreak – you wouldn't expect it with him, but even though he does do those annoying conquests of his, he's a real big softie underneath it all. And PJ, Jesus. I've seen him go from that annoying preppy guy that wears pink Polos to the guy he is today. And out of six years, Derek's the only one that's been constant. He really is a good guy, one of my best friends. But he's never had a girlfriend that we knew about. He doesn't drink alcohol, and he stays outside of the limelight. He's almost… inexperienced."

My cheeks flushed and I looked down at my soda, flicking the tab on the can. Derek had chosen to focus on his practice that time, so I didn't have any backup, physically or mentally. "I don't really know what to say." I admitted. "He's like… perfect for me. I can't imagine my life without him. And I love him," I told her, "I really do."

She narrowed her eyes at me in a way that said she was just searching for something. But I could tell that she was trying not to smile at her words. I'd said exactly what she'd wanted to hear, I realized. She wanted to know that I wasn't some groupie that was interested in Derek because he was in a band, or chasing after him because of the Stanton family's riches, or just playing with his heart because I could. "How long have you known him?" She asked, her words quiet.

I bit down on my lip. "Honestly? Not long. But it's like that doesn't even matter. I feel like I've known him forever. I can't believe I ever lived without him. I can't remember what it felt like to be without him." I bit down on my lip, thinking that I was saying too much. I picked up my drink to take a moment. I was suddenly aware of the fact that I was shaking. This was making me nervous. I took a deep breath, trying to make sure that my heart remained calm as I said the next words. "I don't really know what it is about me that Derek found so interesting," I said. It wasn't a lie. I just knew that who I was just happened to be perfect for who he was. But I still wasn't sure what exactly that was. "But all I know is that I'm glad he picked me."

Tory abandoned her drink on the counter and stepped forward to hug me. Shocked, I stood there frozen for a moment before slowly reaching up and patting her on the back. She pulled away just as quickly as she had stepped forward and fluffed back her hair. "Sorry," she said, giving me a smile. "I mean, the guys put me up to this job because I'm apparently the one designated to deal with possible girlfriends or something. But Jesus, you're like _perfect_ for Derek. I can already tell, even though we've only been talking like, five minutes. Derek's one of those people that you just know. And you're basically the same way. You know that?"

I shrugged, "I do now."

She laughed. "Alright, I've put my official stamp of approval on you. But a warning: don't break Derek's heart, because he has all those guys willing to back him up, and the guys say that I'm like a Mama Bear when it comes to the band."

"Warning received," I replied, "but I promise you, I don't plan on ever breaking his heart."

"That's the right answer," she teased. "Let's go out to the garage and give our boyfriends goo-goo eyes. It boosts their egos." She said, going to the garage door which was just off the kitchen. I followed her, holding Derek's drink in one hand.

The garage didn't really look like a garage. It looked like PJ and Johnny had spread out a large rug on the garage door. The sides were covered in shelving units. There was a big TV with a cord that led inside underneath the door. Fans were all over the place, and I was pretty sure that every single one of them was turned on, keeping it cool in the room. Amps were stacked on top of each other, guitar stands lining the back wall. There was a drum set closer to the large garage door, a microphone set up at the front of the garage, closer to the kitchen door. There was another fridge wedged in the corner, and I didn't miss the old secondhand couches and end tables lounging around. Overall, it was cluttered, just like the inside of the house.

Tory collapsed onto the closest couch, setting her collection of alcoholic drinks on the end table nearby. I moved to sit on the other end, balancing Derek's orange soda on the edge. When I looked up to see him, I was surprised. It wasn't because he had a guitar strapped over his shoulder; it was because of how _good_ he looked with a guitar strapped over his shoulder. Standing with his feet shoulder length apart, he cradled the neck of the guitar in his left hand, fingers moving over the strings with a speed that I had barely managed to match even when I'd been at the peak of my guitar-playing skills before I'd lost my hearing.

If I didn't love him already, seeing him play the guitar was enough to tie up all the loose ends.

Derek looked up and gave me an easy smile. I didn't know if talking to him would ruin his concentration, but since his eyes had returned to the neck of his guitar, I said quietly, _I've got you an orange soda._

Derek's fingers didn't falter on the guitar as I felt his recognition of my words. But he didn't look up at me and he didn't reply. I leaned back in my seat and crossed my legs underneath me, leaning on the arm of the couch and watching him play. The band did a few of their own songs, written mostly by Johnny, but they also did a good amount of covers. And the genre of music wasn't really that was a surprise. Derek exuded the personality for this type. The one person that didn't fit just because of his looks was PJ – he just didn't scream _alternative rock_ to me.

And even though I'd never really listened to the genre all that much before, I found myself loving it. I couldn't tell if it was because I really did like it, or if I liked it because Derek was playing it. I figured that I was probably biased, but it didn't matter as I found myself reconnecting with the music.

This was the first time that I'd listened to music since my hearing returned to me. When I was eleven, I'd always said that if my hearing ever came back it was going to be the very first thing I did. I was going to pick up my guitar and resume playing. But apparently my priorities had changed – the moment I'd realized that I could hear again, my world was Derek and Derek only. But now, with music playing around me, I could _remember_ what it was like to pick up a guitar and strum it by ear. I found myself watching Derek's fingers play over the strings, and if I focused enough on him, I could invade his mind just enough that it felt like I was the one playing, not him.

Tory and I lounged while the guys practiced their entire set that they had prepared for the next weekend. I tried to keep silent and keep my mind far enough away from his that I didn't mess up his playing After they played their forty-five minute set, Derek pulled his guitar strap over his head and put the guitar on the nearest stand. He loped over to me and collapsed onto the couch between me and Tory, draping his arm over the top of the couch. I handed him his drink and he smiled, popping the tab.

Johnny and PJ started to argue over the arrangement of some of the words (I don't think it helped that Johnny was the song writer while PJ was the singer, since they obviously had different opinions on how the lyrics should be sung.) Tank accepted one of the open drinks from Tory, who played referee to her boyfriend and PJ without leaving her spot on the couch.

"Good job," I said quietly, leaning my head back on Derek's shoulder. His fingers combed through my hair.

"You think so?" He teased, his voice low, his breath hot on my ear, blowing hair across my cheek.

"Yeah, I guess." I replied, trying to keep the smile out of my voice. "I'm sure that I could do better than you, though." I joked. We both knew that it was a lie. I hadn't played a guitar since I was eleven, and Derek was obviously a master genius at it.

"Is that a challenge?" He asked, his eyes lighting up. I made a face, trying to press my lips into a thin line, unwilling to give him everything. "Alright, then, let's see how good you are."

"Right now?" I asked suddenly. "Not right now," I said, folding in on myself on the couch.

"Hey, you didn't specify a time. Let's see it." He said. Leaning forward to where his lips were almost touching mine, he said, "And don't worry about them laughing at you. If they do, I won't hesitate to back you up." _Come on, Emily. I know you want to_.

He stood up and breezed past PJ and Johnny, who were bent over a crumpled piece of paper that probably had Johnny's lyrics scribbled out on it. He headed over to the corner of the room and picked up the only acoustic guitar I'd seen in the room. He'd known, of course, that I'd always played acoustic and had very rarely messed with an electric guitar. He came back and handed it to me. Tory and Tank were instantly interested.

Derek picked up his guitar, knowing that I wasn't going to be comfortable playing by myself. He put the strap over his head and pulled a stool up in front of me. He sat down across from me, gave me a smile, and said, _Follow my lead._

I made a face at him. He grinned back and started strumming softly. He'd unplugged the guitar from the amp so it didn't shake the very foundation of the garage. I listened for a moment, listening to the main chords. He was going easy on me because he knew that it had been so long since I'd last played. Listening to him play – just for me – made my heart pound a little harder and my hands become actually a little clammy. But I listened, recognizing the few notes that he was playing on repeat.

With a grin, I placed my fingers over the chords, the strings biting into my fingers. I'd lost whatever callouses I'd built up years ago, but I was able to push the sting out of my mind as I strummed the guitar, matching Derek's movements one after the other. It was just like everything else was with Derek – it felt natural. It became _right_. It was basically like I'd never stopped. As we continued to play, he decided to challenge me, making his patterns more complicated, moving his fingers down the neck, moving faster. After a second to adjust, I followed dutifully.

After a few minutes of competitive playing, Derek strummed his last one and I finished the duet with flourish. I leaned back, my fingers stinging with the indentions from the strings. But it felt right. And it made me beyond happy that I was able to share that moment with Derek – albeit with all of his best friends listening in, but still.

_So, do I win the challenge?_ I asked, my eyes meeting his. My arm rested over the top of the guitar, my fingers still gripping the hot pink guitar pick Derek had given me.

_The jury's still out on that one._ He replied, giving me a dazzling smile in return. _But I think you're pretty fantastic._

**Sort of fluff. But we all enjoy a little fluff here and there. So I hope you liked it. (:**

**In case you were wondering, the Triple Threat Touchdowns are an alternative rock sort of band. I imagine them as a mix of Silverstein, Thousand Foot Krutch, and Trapt. I have to say, though, that I have no affiliations with any of these bands. Their songs and music are theirs.**

**And, since we're on the topic of music, there's this one song that never fails to make me think of the imprints: it's called **_**Better Than Drugs**_** by Skillet. Once again, I don't have any ties to the band or the lyrics or the music besides the fact that I like to listen to them in the car.**

**Thank you for taking the time to read this, I really do appreciate it. Please leave me a review in the box below. Peace (:**


	18. Jealousy at its Finest

**BreeTico – I took lessons for my acoustic guitar and, as a younger child, I didn't see the need for practicing. After about a year, my mother quit making me go to lessons. I've owned an acoustic guitar for about eight or nine years, and I can only play the G and D chords. ): lol**

**Complete Chocoholic – Lol, I'm sorry! Don't lose out on your sleep! I do the same thing, too. It's always a good excuse when you can say it's because you were too interested in reading. Teachers seem to sometimes find that excuse acceptable. Yay for us! (:**

**Cheerdebate2015 – Lol, I really am sorry. In the past, I've been writing chapters ahead of what I'm updating. It seems that I've hit a wall all the way around – on both my fanfictions and my personal projects. It doesn't help that classwork is picking up and I'm stuck with homework every night. But I'm trying to keep with the healthy pattern! Haha (: Thanks for giving me that extra push to get this chapter written and updated.**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_18: Jealousy at its Finest_

"That was freaking _wonderful_." Johnny said suddenly, breaking the silence that had enveloped the garage the moment Derek put the acoustic guitar in my hands. "Heck, it was downright _sexy_. Where did you find this girl, Der?" Tory and Derek gave him a glare at the same time. Tory just seemed slightly annoyed, like she'd learned to accept Johnny's outgoing, flirty personality. Derek just looked pissed off. I could feel the bubbling anger underneath the surface. He wasn't really all that mad with his friend, but his need to prove that I was his was nearly overwhelming.

Derek stood up smoothly, shoving his guitar to the side. He didn't say anything to his friends, instead reaching out to take my chin with two fingers. He leaned forward and murmured in my ear, "You did great, sweetheart. And you'll always be mine." I tried to hide the shiver in my spine as his breath washed over my cheek and down my neck. He'd made his point to Johnny without saying a word. Even though I knew it was just the imprint making him all riled up, I wanted to tell him to tamp down his fluffed-up feathers. Johnny was obviously just a flirt – even his girlfriend had come to terms with that.

Straightening, I tried to ignore the looks darting in between us. If this were any other time, I don't think that they would be looking at us like that. They were obviously pleased that Derek found someone that he wanted to date. But I could see the caution in their eyes. Tory had told me that Derek was inexperienced. After kissing him, I wouldn't believe that in the least. But I knew it was true. To them, I was Derek's first girlfriend, quite a feat for a handsome twenty-one-year-old in a punk alternative rock band. It wasn't hard to see how protective of me he was; they were probably worried that he was _too_ protective, that he was too into me. Especially since they seemed to think (with the exception of Tory) that I would one day break his heart.

I wished that I could tell them about the imprint, about how much I unconditionally loved him. I wished that I could tell him that there wasn't a chance that I would break Derek's heart because he really was it for me. There would never be a person that would be able to overshadow him. But I couldn't say a peep about our imprint. They were just going to have to trust the fact that I was going to stay with him and that he was going to stay with me. But that didn't mean that I wasn't worried they would hate me and tell Derek that I wasn't worth his time.

"Are we ordering a pizza or what?" Derek asked, choosing not to answer Johnny's question. I wasn't sure if it had even been a rhetorical question, but Johnny didn't look bothered by the lack of an answer. In fact, he and Tank looked immediately uplifted by the thought of pizza. I wasn't really that hungry, since Derek had taken me to that Indian restaurant, but I knew that the pizza was just a distraction for his friends.

"Double pepperoni," Johnny said loudly, taking his drink off the small table next to Tory. She rolled her eyes and looped her arm around his elbow. Together, the two of them traipsed inside. Tank followed without so much as a second glance towards us. PJ still stood there, though, calmly and quietly putting away the microphone and leaning the instruments against the walls. Derek put his electric guitar in the stand and took the acoustic from me and replaced it in the stand next to his.

I waited next to the couch, my soda can empty and Derek's freshly opened. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pressed his lips to my temple. "PJ, you want me to make sure that they put sausage on that pizza?" He asked.

"Yeah, man. I'll be there in a minute." He said, continuing to wrap the cords around his hand.

Derek and I stepped over the threshold between the kitchen and the garage. I could hear Tory, Johnny, and Tank arguing about the different types of toppings. Derek rolled his eyes. _They do this every time, and we always end up getting the same thing._ I stifled a laugh. I could easily imagine them doing that. They were all giant children, except for Tory, who seemed to have a healthy dose of maturity. She wasn't lying when she said that she was like the Mama Bear – not only did she seem to have a need to protect the guys, but she also kept them from fighting too much with each other. I could tell that by the way she silenced both Johnny and Tank and told them exactly what they were ordering. That eerie quietness lasted for a good minute before we heard Tory ordering on the phone.

"She's kind of scary," I whispered to him as I leaned against the counter. Derek stood right in front of me, leaning so close that our bodies were practically pressed together. His hands were on either side of me, keeping me locked in the cage of his arms. I could tell, just by a quick mental scan, that he wanted to kiss me. I wasn't sure if it was because of what had happened in the garage, since I could still feel his residual need to prove that I was his and his only, but in the end I didn't really mind. It kind of made me smile that he wanted everyone know that I was his and he was mine.

"Definitely scary," he breathed. He smelled like he usually did, like Derek, but this time there was a hint of sweet, artificial orange. I smoothed my hands over his leather jacket before taking hold of the lapels, pulling him closer to me. Since I had the somewhat bad habit of keeping my mind open to his at all times, I got the full load of whatever he was feeling. It was dangerous because his emotions pushed mine, and mine fed into his. "Emily," he murmured against my lips, "I love you."

He didn't give me time to answer him. He covered my lips with his. But instead of it being fiery and demanding, it was warm and slow. One of his hands came to grip my side as I tugged on his jacket, pulling him even closer to me. Without really meaning to, my mind started to press into his. Instead of closing the door so sharply that it sent reverberations through the two of us, he just stayed cautious. Soon, it began to feel like he was completely surrounding me, like I was wrapped up in a Derek cocoon. There were pieces of him that I didn't even know that flashed through my eyes. A lot of his mind was devoted to me – the day he saw me at the shop, when he woke up in the morning and found me sleeping next to him, that kind of stuff that made my heart want to burst. Around that were bits and pieces of his memories, information about him, little things that I wouldn't even think to ask him – like his favorite pizza topping (pepperoni and sausage) or the fact that when he was a kid, he was sure that there was something living in his closet.

I could also feel his mind searching through mine, sifting through nineteen years of memories. He was probably reading through all of my dreams about him, my fascination with his green-hazel eyes, the fact that I loved his dragon tattoo and the way he played his guitar. This was the farthest that we'd ever gone into reading each other while we were both awake. I knew that if we weren't careful, it would lead to something more. Derek was feeling the same thing, but neither of us could stop as we delved deeper into who the other was.

I could feel the jolt of our connection. It was like electricity dancing across my skin. And then, almost so softly that I didn't feel it, Derek's hand traveled up my side, lifting momentarily to press against my neck. I almost leaned into it before realizing that both of his hands were still on my sides. He was still towering over me, protecting me from the rest of the kitchen. We hadn't moved. But what was that feeling, then? As I thought about it, I could feel his hand again, caressing my hair. _It was his mind_. It almost scared me, but then I decided to try it on my own.

I thought about my imaginary mental hand releasing his lapel and running down his chest before looping around his side. I could feel the fact that he was awed that I figured it out that easily. But then he really realized what was going on and pulled away from me so fast that it was like one of us had caught on fire. His mental door slammed down so hard that I could feel the shaking of it in my teeth. His hands remained on my sides, but they were more like vices now, his fingers knotting in the fabric of my shirt. "Not here," he whispered in my ear. His forehead rested against mine. I kept my eyes squeezed shut, determined on making my heart rate slow down.

"Now that was hot. I was debating on whether or not to sell tickets to it." I looked up sharply. Johnny leaned against the counter with his amber colored bottle grasped by the neck. Seeing my face, he said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to walk in on you two. I was just going to let Perseus in there know about his sausage pizza and you two were just going at it."

"Johnny, dude, shut up." Derek said almost gruffly. He pulled away from me. I could feel myself blushing. Could we not just get a little time to ourselves? I mean, I know we were sort of all over the place because a simple peck could turn into a make out session, but seriously. I would think that someone would just give us the benefit of the doubt and leave us alone. Derek actually let out a low chuckle. Johnny's eyebrows drew together, but he eventually shrugged it off, probably assuming that my significant was laughing because of what he said.

Derek tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me after him, pausing to clap his band mate on the shoulder before leading me into the living room. There was a part of me that wondered, for only a split second, if Derek had enjoyed the fact that Johnny got an eyeful of the two of us together. He was the one who had been "flirting" with me, after all. But I didn't let myself linger on it for too long, because I understood. If there were girls – even girls that I knew Derek wouldn't even look at – hanging all over my significant, I'd be furious. It reminded me of the time, just after we imprinted, that I looked online to see if Derek was on there, a real person. It reminded me of how annoyed I'd been when girls just wrote to him.

So I got it.

Derek pulled me down onto the open couch in the living room, where, if I turned my head at just the right angle, I could see Sarah the Snake's cage. Tory watched us with careful eyes as Derek draped his arm over the back of the couch. I sat down politely on the second seat cushion, not wanting to attach myself to him. But Derek wasn't having any of that. He pulled me right into his side, propped one of his boots up on the table, and turned his attention nonchalantly to the TV.

Feeling like I was being carefully watched, and knowing that I probably wasn't, I shifted a little bit, turning my body so that I could easily rest my head on my significant's shoulder and watch the movie that they were playing on the TV. Interestingly enough, it was one of the ones that I'd wanted to go see when it had been in theatres but had, unfortunately, been unable to watch.

Derek kept his mind virtually closed to mine the entire time. I guess I couldn't really blame him.

# # #

I dropped my forehead onto the desk in front of me. Derek and I had stayed at PJ and Johnny's place until well past midnight. I'd eventually fallen asleep on him and had to be nudged awake so we could leave. It looked like Johnny was in the same boat with Tory, who had put one of the couch pillows on his lap and had promptly gone to sleep, her feet hanging over the side of the couch. Tank had disappeared sometime when I'd been sleeping, so I wasn't really sure where he had gone.

All I'd known was that I was dead tired. By time we'd gotten home and ready for bed, I'd only managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep. And even though Derek made me feel like I was brand new every morning, he couldn't heal sleepiness. I had to actually _sleep_ the regular amount of hours to stop feeling like my brain was just slugging through the day. My mom had given me the early morning shift, and since Derek had some business to do (I didn't ask, he didn't specify) I was stuck here from eight to at least one if not later.

"Emily?" I heard my name, but I didn't look up. I almost did, but I remembered last second that I was supposed to still be deaf to them. It wasn't much longer before I felt two fingers tapping on my shoulder. With a mix of a groan and I sigh, I picked my head up from the desk and turned to look at her. Since my mother barely signed without speaking, I didn't really have to focus on her hands anymore to understand what she was saying. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," I said with a sigh. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night." I explained. I dropped my eyes to the counter in front of me. She pushed the papers out of the way, sitting on the ledge of the desk. I looked up to meet her blue gaze. "Are you and Derek okay?" The way she asked made me think that I looked particularly miserable. Enough that she thought that there were problems in my relationship?

"We're great, mom." I replied, unable to hide the bit of annoyance. Did she really just ask me that? I mean, I understood that she wanted to make sure that her little girl was safe and all that, but to ask me if my relationship was going south to my _face_…. "In fact, I love him more than ever." I stated. But the words didn't sound as sincere as they should have been, probably because I sounded like I was telling a boring story.

Mom bit down on her lip, glancing away from me. She knew that she'd struck a nerve in me. With a heavy sigh, I dropped my head and gave a long, hard stare at the monitor underneath the desk counter. The store was silent; it was just me and my mom. And now that I didn't have him there, I really wished Derek was present so I could use him as a buffer.

"Did you go out with Derek?" She asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. She seemed to be waiting for more, so I added, "I met the guys in Derek's band. They're really nice."

"How late did you stay out?" She asked. The words were casual, but the way she asked them implied that she thought Derek was keeping me out too late. Her little girl needed her beauty rest, after all. I was starting to think that even though she liked Derek, she was doing her best to try and figure out a way for me to come home. Back to her place of residence, anyway.

"Don't know; I fell asleep watching a movie." I told her.

Mom looked a little peeved that I wasn't dishing out every detail of my life, like I was prone to do. She probably knew that Derek and I shared a room. She knew that we were serious about each other. I was honestly kind of surprised that she hadn't asked me anything extremely embarrassing. But maybe she was hoping that I would tell her that kind of stuff on my own. I loved her, but she wasn't going to get every romantic detail of my life. That would be mentally scarring.

With a heavy sigh, I looked up at her and said, "Don't worry about me, mom. Derek's a perfect gentleman. He loves me and I love him. He's not some closet sociopath or anything. Can't you just trust that he's good for me?" She had no idea how true those words were. Derek was my everything. Without him, I wouldn't be able to survive. Literally.

She sighed and leaned her elbow against the counter. Raising her hands to sign to me, she said, "Do I seem that paranoid? I'm sorry, Emily. I just miss you. I think I'm suffering from having an empty nest."

"You could get a dog." I suggested. She made a face, and I added, "Or a fish." That made her smile. At least, until the door opened. Her smile suddenly went from genuine to forced, and I turned in my chair to see who it was.

Xavier stood in the doorway. He breezed inside and tossed his bag underneath the counter. His shoulder brushed my arm, but he still didn't say anything or acknowledge me as he nodded to my mother and slipped to the back room. We both watched him go. The storage room door closed behind him.

Mom let out a breath that she'd apparently been holding. "He's really mad." I said. "Madder than I've ever seen him."

I turned in my chair to look at her. The look on her face told me that she agreed. She chose to sign instead of speak, so I had to really force myself to look at her hands. It felt like it had been such a long time since I'd had to rely on sign language. "Honey, boys like Xavier don't always say what they're feeling, especially if they're emotions that they're uncomfortable sharing. Like love, for instance." My eyes darted to her face as she signed that out. Was she telling me that Xavier loved me? Apparently seeing my horrified expression, she added, "He's hurt, Emily. I would go as far as to say that he was interested in you but didn't take the time to gain your attention because he thought he didn't have any competition. And then one day, you walk in with Derek, and it was probably like he had the floor ripped out from underneath him. I've often wondered myself why you didn't introduce them earlier, especially if you've been friends with Derek for at least half a year."

"Mom," I breathed, "You don't really think…."

"I do. I wasn't going to say anything because I thought that maybe he would realize that you were very serious about Derek and he would just move on. But that doesn't look to be the case. And you two were the best of friends. It's not right for you two to lose a friendship over this." Her eyes said that she was hurting for me. She knew that I was upset over the fact that Xavier was giving me the cold shoulder. She knew that Xavier was hurting from my obvious interest in Derek.

We were all hurting, in the end.

"What do I do?" I asked.

"Talk to him," she offered. "That's the only thing you can do." She put a comforting hand on my shoulder momentarily before turning around and heading to her office. She'd given me advice, and she'd left it up to me on whether or not I take it.

I glanced at the clock. There was still half an hour until we hit twelve and my shift was officially over. Xavier must have gotten out of class early. It also meant that I had more than an hour until Derek came to pick me up. I figured that if I _was_ going to talk to Xavier, it would probably be best if it was just me and him. Derek was protective, and that permeated the air whenever Xavier made me upset. He also had a hard time standing away from me when I was anxious, just like I did with him. Xavier didn't need to feel like he was being ganged up on.

With a resigned sigh, I pushed my chair out from underneath my desk and swiveled to face the storage room door. Xavier had slipped back there without a word. I would put money down that he was planning on staying there until I left. I wasn't going to give him that.

I pushed out of my chair and headed over to the storage room door. Mom had taken to leaving it unlocked, now. She used to lock it all the time, especially right before I met Derek. But now, with the "Employees Only" sign stuck to the door, she felt better about leaving me keyless. I stood there, in front of the door, staring at the sign, trying to gain the courage to go in there and talk to him. The worst thing that could happen is that he would upset me enough that my heart rate altered Derek and he came running. I could already feel my heart starting to pound. I took a deep breath, trying to coax it into its normal pattern.

Before I could talk myself into turning around and leaving, I put my hand on the knob and pushed the door open. Xavier looked up almost sharply as I stepped into the room. The moment he realized that it was me and not my mom or a customer breaking the rules, his eyes darkened and he turned back around, determined to give me the cold shoulder.

I stalked forward and went to stand right behind him. He wasn't going to get away with it anymore. I wasn't going to let him. I tapped on his shoulder and he didn't turn around. I could feel anger bubbling inside me. "Xavier," I hissed.

"What?" His voice was hard as he whirled around to face me, his bony shoulder smacking into the side of my hand. And honestly, it sort of hurt.

Embarrassingly, I lost my confidence the moment he said the word. "I, um," I stuttered, "why won't you talk to me?"

He scoffed. "Are you really asking me that?" He spoke quickly, and since he wasn't signing to me and he still thought I was deaf, he was hoping to intimidate me or give me trouble in reading his lips. Too bad I was ahead of him in that game.

I couldn't help but swallow hard. "No, I asked it and didn't want the answer." My sarcasm was a first defense against things that made me nervous. He knew that just as well as I did. But it didn't stop his eyes from flashing with anger. The moment they did, I knew I shouldn't have said that.

"Why don't you go find your boyfriend?" He hissed.

"Xavier." I said pointedly. "You're my best friend, okay? You're one of the only people I've ever known that didn't mind that I was deaf. But you can't treat me like this just because you're pissed off." I was pleased to note that it looked like my confidence and voice had returned. All I needed was for Xavier to be rude, and I had everything handled. "You never said _anything_ to me. You kissed me here and then pretended that it didn't even happen. We never talked about it. You never made it seem like you wanted me to be your girlfriend. In fact, it was sort of like I was just the girl you knew would kiss you. It was like I was just some sort of dare that you managed to complete. So forgive me for not thinking that you were interested in me, or that we were together in any way."

Xavier's shoulders had gone rigid when I said the words. He hadn't been able to hide parts of his expression – his eyes were still hard and unyielding, but they were a little wider than normal, and he was alternating between clenching his jaw so hard that I thought he was going to break a tooth and staring at me like a fish out of water. He hadn't expected me to walk in here and accuse him of anything. I hadn't expected it either; it was just what came out.

"I never thought you were just a game," he finally said. "I really did – I really do – care about you." His words were strangled, as if he was having a hard time saying them. I found myself wondering if it was because he was uncomfortable showing what was underneath or if it was just because they weren't all that true. Honestly, I was sort of horrified in myself that I was second-guessing him. He was my best friend. I was supposed to trust him unconditionally, right?

"You don't show it," I said. "You haven't spoken to me since you found out that Derek and I were together. You stopped bringing me cookies. You avoided seeing me at all costs. That doesn't sound like you care about me." I accused.

Xavier had turned his entire body to face me. We were standing on feet apart, glaring at each other. I was expecting him to come back with something that would cut me to the bone. But instead, he just looked at me. And then he did something that I would have never expected. He closed the distance between us, grabbing my face almost roughly with both hands, and brought his lips down hard on mine. This wasn't a Xavier-Emily kiss, one that I had experienced before. This was the kind of kiss that I had only shared with Derek.

I froze. My entire body seemed to feel like it was in an ice block. A chill covered over my skin as something buried deep inside started to burn. It wasn't pleasant, like the soothing shift of hot and cold when I kissed Derek. It wasn't like an imprint in the least. It was like there was something inside of me that was just _furious_ that Xavier was kissing me, especially in that way, when my heart fully belonged to another. I realized that my imprint was whaling on me, telling me that this was so wrong I shouldn't have even been standing there, letting him kiss me. Obviously, it didn't cross his mind that I didn't like it, despite the fact that I wasn't even kissing him back.

_Let go of me_. The words started in my mind, sure, but I could practically feel them covering my entire body, pulling together to lash out. Xavier took a step back, releasing me completely. His eyes were alight in a way that I'd never seen them before. He brought the back of his hand to his mouth for a second before looking down at it. "You bit me," he accused.

I hadn't. I hadn't even moved. I figured that my imprint must have done something to him. I sort of wanted to thank it for taking care of that for me. "I can't believe you just did that!" I exclaimed. It was the only thing that I could think to say. It was like my brain's wiring had shorted out, and not in the good way that it did when Derek hugged me or whispered in my ear. It was more like I couldn't even breathe because I was having a bad allergic reaction.

"I care about you," Xavier said. But his voice was lowered, just a mere whisper. And it wasn't a sexy low whisper that made my spine tingle. It was the voice of a little kid, admitting that he did wrong. "I want you to be _my_ girlfriend, Emily. Not his."

I shook my head and tears touched my eyes. Was this really happening, right now? Why couldn't he have told me that a month ago, before I met Derek? If that had happened and we'd been together, there was a chance that I would have never seen Derek. I would have never felt that pull to go to him. We would have never imprinted. And even though I recognized it as a possibility if the things in my past had changed, I wouldn't have wanted it at all. Derek made me happy. He made me feel like I could be myself. And I honestly believed that there would have never been anyone in the world but him that could make me that happy. "You're too late, Xavier."

"Why?" He demanded. "Are you really telling me you love him? That you want to spend the rest of your life with him? You know that your first serious boyfriend never works out, right?"

"Don't say that," I said. I tried to say it with conviction, but it just came out hurt and slightly whispered. I knew that the statistic was true, but things were different for me and Derek. We were an imprinted couple. Soul mates. Nothing could tear us apart. But he didn't know that. But besides all of that, it was just the fact that he was trying to talk me out of my relationship so that I could date him.

"It's true."

"I love Derek," I told him, nearly spitting out the words. "I love him with all of my heart. Even if something ever happened to him, I would never be able to move on. He has all of it."

"Then get it back," Xavier sounded depressed by the thought.

"It's not that easy," I said. "And even if it was, I wouldn't do it. I've moved into Derek's house. I don't know if you knew, but it's true. We're planning our future together. Because I love him, and we're spending the rest of our lives together. And I'm sorry Xavier, but nothing you say or do can change that. But that doesn't mean I want you to be out of my life completely. I want you to be my best friend."

"I don't want to be just your best friend." He said.

"Well that's what I want you to be." After I said it, I realized that I sounded a little rude. But it was too late to change it now. Besides, it was true, and I might as well have made that as clear as I could. "One day, you'll find someone who is to you who Derek is to me." I told him. "And it's not me. It was never going to be me."

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"I just know," I replied, my voice soft. I was fighting back the urge to cry. "Just trust me on that." When Xavier didn't say anything else, I turned on my heel and slipped out of the storage room. If I was being honest with myself, a part of me wanted him to come after me. Not because he was my prince, but because I wanted him to tell me that he would stand by me as my friend.

But he didn't say a word.

I let the door close behind me, ducked behind the counter and grabbed my bag, and headed to the front door without saying a word to my mom. I wasn't supposed to leave the floor unattended, but I had to go talk to Xavier in the back room, and I didn't have the guts to hang around. I pushed out onto the sidewalk, realizing that it was, very literally, the first time I'd been alone in Chicago. I became deaf when I was eleven and only left the house with Bailey, and even then we needed an adult to drive us around. After I lost my hearing, I wasn't allowed to leave my mother's line of sight. I had never driven a car. I'd never gone shopping alone. I had never even walked down to the gas station to get my own candy alone.

Alone. For the first time in my life, I was truly alone. I took in a breath that was slightly hitched. I leaned against the shop windows for a moment, trying to find where I wanted to go. I had always been pretty good at finding my way around the city. I'd lived in Chicago for my entire life, and when I didn't have a book to read I was looking out the windows. With a new sense of determination, I stepped away from the shop, purse slung over my shoulder, and headed to the nearby park where Bailey and I had always gone when we had free time.

I trampled down the dirt path and found a bench to sit on under the overhang of a wide tree. The shade was actually a little cool, so cool that I found goose flesh rising on my arms. Or maybe it was just because of what I had done. I had confronted my best friend and told him that he was going to stay my best friend forever. I'd left my mom's shop – fifteen minutes too early, at that – without telling her where I was going.

I sat there for a while, I wasn't sure how long, watching the water in the creek run by. Little kids played games on the nearby playground, their parents sitting on benches and making sure that they didn't hurt themselves. People with more determination than I had ran along the path in their little jogging shorts with their iPods plugged in. It was almost surreal, sitting on a park bench by myself, listening to the sounds of everything moving around me.

My phone vibrated in my purse. It was probably a text message from my mom, demanding to know where I had gone. I pulled it out and went to open it before realizing that it was a call. From Derek. My thumb slid over the screen and I put it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Emily," Derek breathed. He sounded relieved. "Where are you, sweetheart?" Derek actually sounded like he was about to have a heart attack. I closed my eyes and focused on him, trying to connect myself with him. The more I tried, the more I could feel the undertone of his heart in my chest, beating wildly, like he'd just run five miles.

I sniffled. "The park," the words were low and whispered. I brought my knees up to my chest. "Derek," I began, but he cut me off.

"I'll be there soon. Just stay where you are. Okay? I love you."

"Love you," I replied just as he hung up the phone. I sat there, staring down at my screen. The first phone call I received in eight years. I felt like it should be a momentous thing. Not every person goes without anybody calling them for eight _years_.

I rested my chin on my knees and continued to look out over my own little section of the park, secluded in the shade on my park bench. Tears stung in my eyes. I wasn't really sure why I was crying. I'd told Xavier exactly what he needed to know, and he still refused to accept the fact that I was with Derek. He'd kissed me, and my imprint had done something to him in retaliation. I'd left my mom's shop. I'd worried Derek. Frustrated, a drug the back of my hand along my cheek. I was just frustrated with myself, with the way things were, with the fact that I was so weak I couldn't just cut Xavier lose. I didn't have the guts to tell him that if he wanted to pretend that we weren't friends then I could do the same thing, too. Instead, I'd subjected myself to one of the most awkward conversations I'd ever had in my entire life.

I was so focused on my thoughts that I wasn't really aware of the outside world. An arm draped over my shoulders, pulling me into a warm side. "Sweetheart," he whispered in my ear. I turned to him, immediately burying my face in his chest. His hand rubbed up and down my arm, sending his soothing calmness through me, erasing the goose flesh on my arms, putting the two of us together. "It's okay, baby. Everything will be okay."

**Sorry for such the long wait in getting this chapter out. As I told BreeTico, I've been suffering from an extreme writer's block that's lasted the last couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure I'm slowly dying inside. Hopefully, finishing this chapter was enough to give me a jump start into the next chapter or in my own personal works, which have slowly been coming along, if they've been moving at all. Sigh.**

**I'm going to go ahead and apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors. Usually, I've written the chapter and have read over it to make sure everything's in place. But this time I'm too lazy to do so, and I want to get this chapter out ASAP. So please don't shoot me for my mistakes. :P**

**Thank you so much for reading this, for sticking with it over the past eighteen chapters. I'm still trying to form up the next ones, as well as trying to decide how to end Emily and Derek's story. I'm not sure how far off it is, but I do believe that we're more than halfway through. So anyway.**

**Thank you for reading, and please do take the time to leave me a review in the box below. I really do love them. They make me smile. Peace (:**


	19. Forever Inked

**BreeTico – Lol, I think being a writer is one of the hardest things ever. Not only do you have to be in the mood for writing, but you also have to have at least a lick of imagination. Sigh. And Xavier **_**is**_** an idiotic jerk. He just really likes Emily and has just recently figured out that he's too late. So I have to feel some pity for him. But mostly I don't like him. At least, right now. Haha! (:**

**I'm really, really, super duper uber sorry for the extremely long wait. My writer's block has continually gotten worse, and I've found myself staring at the computer screen for minutes at a time without a clue of how to move on. I need inspiration, quick, before the writer in me recedes into the darkest, drabbest corners of my mind!**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_19: Forever Inked_

I sprawled out on the bed, face down in the pillows, my feet dangling off the end of the mattress. After I'd calmed down enough that I wasn't sniffling because of my ruined friendship with Xavier, Derek had led me to his car. He told me that he finished with his plans early and had gone to my mom's shop only to find that I wasn't even there. He'd even knocked on my mom's office door to ask where I'd gone, only she didn't even know that I'd left. He told me that he was embarrassed to admit it, but he'd freaked out when he realized that no one – not even Xavier, who he'd angrily confronted – knew where I'd gone. He said that I should probably text her and tell her that I was okay, which I did. She wasn't pleased with the fact that I had run off, either, but she didn't ask for an explanation. Yet.

I felt the bed bow as Derek sat next to me, kicking off his shoes. A moment later, he was lying down next to me. I let out a tired groan, which made him chuckle. He rested a hand on my lower back, fingers dancing on the fabric of my shirt. It sent chills throughout my body, but I remained where I was. I got the feeling that he wanted to ask me something. He had something that he wanted to tell me, but he didn't know how to bring it up.

Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I rolled over, turning to directly face him. Our noses were only inches apart. I let one of my legs drape over his as I slid an arm across his muscular stomach, dropping my head onto his shoulder. I could feel the spark that it gave him, and I struggled to hide my smile. "I'm sorry," I whispered, "for getting all upset about another guy."

Derek let out a breath. "It's fine, baby. I was more worried about where you were. Though when I went back into the storage room looking for you and found Xavier, he looked like he'd been caught red-headed. Did he do something to you?" I could tell that he was trying to keep his voice calm, but there was an angry current running beneath it. A part of me liked it. And the other part of me said that I was ridiculous for liking it in the first place.

I felt my entire body tense. Derek could feel it, too, because his body suddenly froze next to me. He was waiting for the worst, I realized. "He kissed me," I admitted, my voice low. I could feel Derek's anger swirling inside of him, laced with jealousy and the need to prove that I was his. "The imprint shocked him, or something. He accused me of biting him." I said, lifting my face to his.

"Good," he said, his hand coming up to grasp mine. "Next time I see him, I'll…." He didn't elaborate on what he wanted to do to my (possibly ex) best friend. I figured that it was partly for me, partly because he didn't know what he wanted to do to Xavier for kissing me. To Aces, that was crossing a huge line. Their rules were different than regular human rules, and even then, kissing another guy's girlfriend was totally messed up. I bet that's why he looked so sheepish when Derek saw him there. Not even thirty minutes before he'd been trying to make out with me. And Derek was bigger and stronger than Xavier on any given day. If I was him, I'd be scared.

"Don't do anything to him," I whispered even though I knew Derek wouldn't dare. He wasn't interested in getting into any trouble with me or the real world – that is, if Derek beat him up and Xavier threatened to press charges against him, or something. "Just leave him be. He doesn't want anything to do with me unless I'm dating him." I could hear the hitch in my breath as I said the words, realizing how true it felt. That was pretty much what he'd told me, right? He said that he didn't want to be my best friend, he wanted to be my boyfriend. And since that position was already taken – forever – did that mean he was going to slide out of my life for all eternity?

Derek sat up a little bit to kiss the top of my head. "I won't do anything to him, Emily. I swear on it. But forgive me if next time I see him, I try to kiss you as often as I can." His chin rested on my head, and I could hear the rumble of every word in his chest.

I stifled a giggle. "I'll accept that," I said. I could feel Derek pushing emotions and vague advice towards me, trying to pretend like he wasn't trying to influence me. But I didn't mind it. If it were anybody else, I was sure that I'd be angry beyond words. This time, I just listened. It was time for me to stop worrying about everyone around me, specifically Xavier. I'd let him bother me to the point of tears, and I hated being that weak. Derek had seen me cry a total of three times, and two of those times it was because of Xavier. It wasn't fair to him for me to cry over another guy, even if he knew that Xavier was destined to be my friend and nothing more. It just wasn't right. The advice wasn't from him, directly. I had the feeling that it was from Victoria. But either way, I accepted it.

The moment I decided to give up trying to fit my previous life to my current one, I felt a rush of calm wash over me. It wasn't the same feeling as I got when Derek touched me; it was greater, like a mixture of him and of the resolution that ran through my mind. I sighed heavily. It was like a pressure had been released off my chest. Derek seemed to feel it; the hand not holding mine reached up and ran through my hair. I let my eyes flutter.

I looked up at Derek. He was already looking down at me. I rolled over a little bit more and pressed my lips to his. Now that I thought back about it, there was few times where I initiated a kiss. But this was one of those few times. Derek reacted almost immediately, his body shifting to the point where he was propped up on one arm, his other hand set securely against my side. My hand ran through his hair, running down the soft, thin leather of his necklace, pressing down on the pendant that had come out from the collar of his shirt. I didn't even mean to do it, but my fingers fumbled over the front of his shirt, running down the three buttons on the V-neck. As my fingers slid over the fabric, I realized that there was something underneath it, against his chest. It felt like he had some sort of bandage there.

Without really thinking about what I was doing, I pulled away from him and yanked hard on the collar of his shirt. He seemed surprised by the movement, not that I blamed him. I realized half a second later that peering down the front of his shirt was weird, even if he was my significant. But I couldn't be bothered by it because I clearly saw the gauze taped to his chest. "Derek!" I exclaimed. "What did you do?" And why hadn't I felt that he needed to be healed? I was supposed to feel that kind of stuff, right? Was there something wrong with me? Wrong with our imprint?

"Emily," he started, but I was already tugging at the hem of his shirt, determined to see what was wrong with him. He sighed and complied, pulling it off by reaching behind his head and grasping the collar of his shirt the way guys do. I couldn't even find it in me to admire his chest and nice set of manly abs because I was so worried about him. Sure enough, taped to his chest, just over his heart, was a piece of gauze the size of the palm of my hand. I gently pressed my hand against it, worried that something had happened to him.

"Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" I demanded.

"Because I'm not hurt," he replied softly. His eyes searched mine for a second before he picked at the corner of the medical tape against his skin. He winced a little as he pulled it off. I held my breath, still expecting to see some monstrous wound marring his skin.

Derek peeled away the gauze, revealing his chest. Just over his heart, the skin was raised and red. But he wasn't hurt, not technically. I now knew what he'd gone to go do while I was at work. My significant had gone to get a tattoo. My eyes immediately watered at the sight of it. I understood the placement of it now. It ran the length of my longest finger and was about the width of two fingers, swirling in cursive. Derek had tattooed my name over his heart.

I reached out and pressed my finger to it. I wondered if it hurt at all. Right then, I felt a flush of warmth that seemed to seep out of me and into him. I knew from somewhere that new tattoos were supposed to stay out of the sunlight and needed some sort of salve to make sure that they healed over, since they had to scab up. I realized that I had probably healed him, letting him skip the scabbing part. "Derek," I breathed, brushing the back of my hand across my cheek. I couldn't even find the words to say how much that meant to me. He'd tattooed my name on his skin. That was forever. I already knew that our relationship was going to withstand decades, but this was more than that.

"After I got it done, I was worried that you weren't going to like it," he said quietly. His eyes continued to search my face.

"I love it," I said, putting my hand on his cheek. "I might even like it more than I like your dragon." I told him, looking up at him from underneath my lashes. His face broke out into a smile as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. I let my hands slide up his chest and wrap around his neck, tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck.

Derek's skin was hot on mine, his fingers leaving trails of fire on my cheek, my arm, my neck. Something inside of me was going crazy over him, too. My hands tangled in his hair, traveled down the smooth skin of his chest, pulled him closer to me. I could taste the sharp mint of the gum he'd been chewing earlier as our mouths moved together. We were one, destined to be one, forever and always.

His fingers skimmed the skin of my waist, my shirt riding up. He held his mind close to mine, but just out of reach. His ability to restrain himself was growing stronger by the day – even though this was the greatest make out session we'd ever shared, he was still keeping his head for the most part. Our kisses were fiery and almost urgent. But after a little while, they slowed to sweet pecks that grazed over my skin. I could feel love emanating from him every time his lips touched me. I could feel myself relaxing, calming down, mind becoming even more unguarded.

Derek pulled away from me then, his mind carefully closed off to mine despite the fact that we'd touched the very surface of mutualizing. He wasn't willing to go any farther until he was absolutely positive that the two of us were ready for such a big step. And even though I wanted it – I wanted to know every little thing about him – I respected his decision. And in the end, he was probably right. It was like our roles had been reversed. He was the responsible one, and I was the one that couldn't wait for more.

"Emily," he whispered, his lips touching my ear, breath hot on my hair. "I love you more than I've ever loved anything else. And I always will."

I smiled and kissed him one last time before snuggling into his side and letting sleep take me.

# # #

All I was aware of, at first, was the sound of something thumping right underneath my ear. Not just one something, I decided after a moment of listening to it. _Two_ somethings. And just like that, I remembered the night before as I really started to wake up from my morning stupor. I had fallen asleep nearly on top of Derek. He was lying out on his back, one arm hanging over the side of the bed, the other tucked underneath my head. I sat up with a low groan of morning hatred, running my fingers over my eyes. I had fallen asleep in my skirt, which had hiked up my thighs in the middle of the night, and my tank top which felt twisted and tight. Running a hand through my hair, I glanced over at my sleeping significant.

Moving as quietly and quickly as I could, I slid away from him, swinging my feet to the floor on my side of the bed. Smoothing down my skirt, I found the drive to stand up and head to the dresser. I was in desperate need of a shower. Maybe after that I would feel less like I'd slept in the tightest clothes I owned. Even my mouth felt dry, I realized, which was generally uncommon when I was next to Derek. I must have really looked like a mess.

I slid open the dresser drawers and picked through my options, choosing out undergarments and a pair of jeans that flared out on the legs and made my butt look great, or so said my mother. I dug around for a shirt for a little while, but eventually ended up standing in front of the open closet. After a few moments of staring at my shirts, none of them jumping out at me and screaming "Wear me! Wear me!" I turned my attention to the lines of darkly colored shirts on Derek's side of the closet. I hardly ever really paid attention to what he was wearing unless I was admiring the fit of his clothes or the way it made his skin look warmer. It was always about him. But for some reason, I found myself flicking through the hangers of dark shirts, noting the way they all seemed to be virtually the same. He was nothing if not predictable, my man.

I'd gotten about halfway down the row when someone cleared their throat. I froze for half a second before sheepishly looking over my shoulder. Derek had apparently woken up while I was surveying his choice of outdoors wear, and I'd been so distracted that I hadn't even noticed the steady stream of coherent thoughts. Derek met my gaze with a blazing warm smile that I felt all the way to my toes. "Find anything you like?" He asked, his lips twitching up into a smile.

"A few things, maybe," I answered without missing a beat. I turned away from him so he couldn't see the way his simple flirting affected me. My cheeks were growing hotter by the second. I could hear him getting up as I returned to my half of the closet, quickly picking a shirt at random and tossing it onto my pile of things to shuttle away to the bathroom with me.

Just as Derek surprised me by wrapping an arm around my waist, there was a knock on the door.

I let out an unladylike snort. Of course, we hadn't even been up for ten minutes and someone was knocking on the door. Of course. Derek just chuckled and grabbed his shirt from yesterday from the end of his bed. He straightened it out as he headed over to the door. He was still holding it in one hand when he twisted the knob. The door swung open. I gathered my things in my arms, trying to balance them precariously.

I heard a low whistle from whoever was standing at the door, followed by a loud, "Dude, you're _so_ whipped!" I turned to see Jack standing on his tiptoes, looking over Derek's shoulder at me. He puckered up his lips and blew me a kiss. Derek shoved him in the stomach. I stifled a giggle, rolling my eyes. "Man, don't you know you're not supposed to get a girl's name tattooed on you?"

"Kiss off!" I called out from my place inside the room.

Derek let out a bark of laughter. "You heard the lady. What do you want?" His words weren't sharp or pointed, but I could tell that he wanted to get back to me. It was just too hard for us to get any alone time. Derek had four brothers and sisters, not to mention his two parents, and this was our most solitary place. I thought, momentarily, about the idea of getting our own place. It would mean that we wouldn't have to move around the schedules of the rest of his family, but it was probably going to be a really bad idea. Our imprint had only been for about three weeks, and we were already having trouble keeping ourselves at our chosen slow pace (for Aces, anyway.)

"Mom and Madison want to take Emily shopping. She says that you two need to go out on a date." Jack looked like he was struggling not to laugh. He must have thought that it seemed as ridiculous as I did – Derek and I were constantly with each other, and when we weren't, we worried about the other. Now that we had ascended, we didn't need to release each other anymore, but I still didn't want him to leave me anywhere. We were always circling around each other, always in the other's mind, always counting down the moments until we could be together. But I guess it made sense; Victoria wanted us to have a sense of normalcy, even if we weren't a normal couple.

Derek must not have been very focused on me, because he didn't seem to pick up on my thoughts. When I looked up, he was looking at me, a question clearly formed in his eyes. "What?" I asked a little too loudly. "I wasn't listening."

_Do you want to go out on a date with me? You can go shopping with Madison and Mom, and I'll find a place where we can go. No fancy restaurants, though, right?_

"Right," I agreed. "Yeah, we can do that. It will get our minds off of things." Jack snorted at the doorway, probably because he realized that we were talking to each other in our minds. A part of me said that he was just jealous over the fact that he hadn't met his significant yet. I was probably going to have to get used to it – with the imprints being renewed, those that hadn't imprinted were going to be jealous over the fact that I, a human girl, had managed to snag one of the hottest Ace guys there was.

"Well, you better hurry," Jack said. "They're leaving in like, thirty minutes, tops. And girlfriend, I think you've got a bird's nest in your hair." My significant rightfully defended me by socking his brother in the shoulder. _Love you,_ I thought in his general direction.

Derek nodded, shooting off a dazzling smile, ducking his head under the hem of his shirt and yanking it on. Jack leaned against the doorway while I hurried past the two of them to the bathroom. I took the quickest shower ever, blow-dried my hair halfway, and quickly put on the makeup basics – which, now, was only mascara and lip gloss. I hurried back to the bedroom to grab my sandals and purse. Jack and Derek were still in the doorway, talking about a show or something. I wasn't really paying attention as I slipped my feet into my shoes and snatched my purse off the ground. I stood up on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips.

_Do you need some cash? I've got a few fifties in my wallet._ He offered. He could tell that I didn't like it when other people tried to take care of me financially when I had my own money. I'd also learned from him that he was determined to provide for me, and if that meant giving me his entire paycheck he would do it. Neither of us was going to back down easily. We were at an impasse.

_No, I have my own money. Thanks, though._ There was no point in lashing out at him. I would never really be comfortable with him giving me money or buying things for me, and he would never stop trying to take care of me in every conceivable way. I could feel him mentally rolling his eyes at me as he squeezed my hand once before letting me go. I breezed down the hallway after Jack, smiling at my significant over my shoulder.

_Have fun_, Derek called after me.

_You too,_ I said back.

# # #

Madison was extremely excited that I was there. She had thought that I wouldn't accept their invitation for shopping. Madison had only seen the new imprints of others; and they were always holding onto one another, even freaking out when they weren't together. She had figured that me without Derek would be a wiggly mess of pudding, or something. Understandable, I guess.

And partly true. It was hard going from constant protection and understanding to an area without so much as the breeze of him. I managed my mother's shop because I knew that he would be coming back soon and that I couldn't look distressed about him not being there. But with other Aces, I could be myself. It was easier to let myself show them how much I craved his presence. And now that I wasn't constantly holding myself in check, I caught myself doing little things that, to any other person, would look natural. Touching my back or my neck for an ache was one. Shrugging out my shoulders, shaking out my wrists, or shifting anxiously from one foot to the other were a few more.

After about an hour, I had bought nothing. We stopped in the mall food court for fruit smoothies and had managed to steal a booth on the very outskirts of the eating customers. Victoria and Madison slid into one side, leaving the other for me. I harbored all of their shopping bags between me and the wall, since there wasn't any room for all of them on their side.

As I stirred my smoothie with my straw, I listened to Madison's story about her friends while looking over their bags out of the corner of my eye. Victoria was pretty free with her credit card. She and Madison seemed to favor the stores that I avoided like they had the plague, thanks to their incredibly high prices. Victoria hadn't even batted an eyelash as she swiped her card at several stores, even when the totals got to be three digits. I nearly had a coronary. My mom and I never spent three digits anywhere unless it was at the grocery store.

"Emily?" I looked up at the sound of my name, meeting both Victoria's and Madison's gazes. They looked a little worried. They also looked like they were waiting for me to answer a question.

"Sorry, I zoned out." I admitted with a sheepish grin. "What did you say?"

"I asked why you haven't even tried on anything yet." Madison reiterated, giving me a pointed look. I knew that this impromptu shopping was a part of the plan to get me and Derek to go out on a date of some sort. Usually, dating couples didn't live together after only weeks of knowing each other. They wanted to give me my Cinderella moment, even if that meant forcing Derek to wait in the living room while I walked down the hallway in my sparkly dress and matching stilettos.

Like that was ever going to happen. If I attempted stilettos, I was going to fall flat on my face and probably break my nose in the process.

I shrugged. Somehow, it became embarrassing to admit that I didn't have the kind of money to shop where they did. I was a cashier at my mom's music shop, for God's sake. It wasn't like I was rolling in money in my free time. Finally, I settled on saying, "I don't go in those stores all that often. It's not really… my style." I said. I could tell, though, that it didn't exactly fool them. They were smart enough to realize that even though my dad had a certain amount of money, I wasn't into charity handouts. I was nineteen. Other nineteen-year-olds were in college, working part-time like me, studying for their tests. They weren't supposed to be dependent on their parents anymore. So I wasn't dependent on mine.

Madison blinked rapidly a few times, like she was trying to figure out how to move us off the subject. Or, at least, make it less awkward.

I really, really wanted Derek at my side now. Almost as if the universe was answering my prayers, my phone lit up and started buzzing in my purse. I turned and nearly pounced on it, eager for the momentary break. I couldn't help but hope that it was Derek. I knew, though, that it was probably going to be my mom, texting me to see what I was doing. I pulled the phone out of my purse and felt my heart swell when I saw the name and the picture tagged to it.

I was sure that Victoria and Madison could see my face light up like a bulb had gone off in my skin as I swiped my finger across the screen. "Hey," I said into the mouthpiece, my heart clenching for a second while I waited for his reply.

"Hey." I let out a sigh, unable to hide the smile touching the edges of my lips. He sounded relieved, too. "Your heart was starting to pick up. Are you okay?"

I played with my straw as I brought my knees up to my chest in the booth, despite normal public etiquette. "I'm fine," I replied smoothly. I studiously avoided Victoria and Madison's gazes. "Don't worry about me. What are you doing?"

"I can tell you're clamming up about something. But you're so far out of range that it's hard to get a good read on you. Don't think I won't wrestle it out of you later."

"You can try," I said, challenging him with a devious smile on my face. I remembered what happened last time I challenged him. He trapped me in the front seat of his car just in front of the high school…. I brought my smoothie across the table and chewed almost nervously on the straw. I could tell that Victoria and Madison were listening intently. I was used to having them around in the sense that they'd seen us touch and they'd seen us kiss, but we'd never flirted with each other so boldly in front of his family.

"Don't tempt me," was his answer. I sputtered out a laugh, nearly knocking over my drink. I could hear the laughter in his voice, which put me at ease. "Stay safe, baby."

I put my elbows down on the table. "I will. I love you." I couldn't help but glance up at his mom and sister as the words slipped out of my mouth. They were both slyly looking away, but I could tell that they were really listening in. I couldn't even begin to hide the blush that was crawling up my cheeks and staining my neck.

"I love you, too, sweetheart. I'll see you soon." I could hear him pull away from the phone, but I didn't pull mine away from my face. I waited until I heard the slight pop that said he'd hung up before taking a deep breath and setting my phone down on the table. Derek's name and picture glared up at me, a time flashing underneath, saying that we'd only been talking for about five minutes. It hadn't been very long, but it was almost enough to give me a renewed sense of comfort.

Taking a sip of my smoothie, I grinned at Victoria and Madison. "We've got more shopping to do."

**Once again, I'm terribly sorry for the incredibly long wait on this. It's been weeks, I think. But I have a good excuse, I do! I had several exams this past week and have been swamped in other personal aspects of life. But I did it – I finally got this chapter written. And honestly, I'm going to warn you to expect another large gap between updates. My planning has only taken me so far, and I'm still trying to figure out how to end this chapter of Derek and Emily's lives. Things might seem a little fluffy for a little while. But fluffy is okay, right?**

**I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammatical errors. I sort of skimmed over it, but I didn't actively search for mistakes. So please do forgive me if they're in there. Hopefully they're not terribly distracting.**

**As always, I ask that you take a few moments to leave me a review in the box below. Another thing: I want to really thank you all for your continued support for this fanfiction. Thank you all so much! Peace (:**


	20. Date Night

**BreeTico – I love fluffy! Lol (: And I love guys with meaningful tattoos. Completely hot. Haha!**

**Where are you, other readers? The author in me is crying! :P**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_20: Date Night_

"That looks _great_ on you. Seriously, you look fantastic. If you wear that, Derek's jaw is going to hit the floor." Madison assured, leaning in the open doorway of my dressing room. I stood in bare feet, picking at the vibrant orangey-yellow cloth that clung to my skin. I wasn't sure what the dress was made of, but it was completely different than anything else I owned. It was nearly skin-tight, the color of a sunset, and had a halter top – thick slices of fabric that tied around the back of my neck. The hem hit mid-thigh, and with the cinched waist and flowing skirt, it only accentuated my newer, curvier figure.

I bit down on my bottom lip and peered at myself in the mirror. I hardly had any time to get ready in the morning, so my coal black hair was piled in a messy bun and tied at the nape of my neck. I'd barely put on any makeup, either, but I looked like I did thanks to the ascension changes. In the mirror, I surveyed my legs and the chipping polish on my toenails. I could tell by the sincerity in Madison's eyes that she wasn't lying, but for the first time since ascending and regaining my hearing, I felt almost mediocre to my significant. He was so charming, so handsome, so outwardly sweet and thoughtful. I didn't know how I was going to match up to that – our first real outing together in public, where people would see us and decide on whether or not we were a couple. And even though I knew there was a slim chance of it, I was worried that Bailey or her family would catch us with our guard down, or that Xavier or my mother would see us, or that any of Derek's friends would come up to talk to him and immediately write me off as a temporary fling.

"You don't look like a girl that thinks she's drop dead gorgeous." Madison accused when I remained silent. She threw a glance over her shoulder and, without a worry over the fact that the store was filled with shoppers, called out, "Mom! Emily needs encouragement!"

I could feel my cheeks blushing; it didn't exactly look great with the sunny color of the dress. "Thanks, Madison," I hissed, my eyes shifting over the other women – and the occasional men – in the shop. Most of them had just glanced over at us, at me standing inside the dressing room, while the rest of them were completely unbothered. It still made my stomach clench with embarrassment, though. It also made me wish that I had the same self-confidence she did.

Victoria, laden down with her shopping bags, scurried across the floor of the shop and leaned against the other side of the door. "Oh, honey," she said, a smile growing bright over her face. I didn't even have the moment to be affected by the endearment, which was both warming and a little disconcerting, since it was what my mother always called me. "You look beautiful. I think that dress was made with you in mind."

"That's exactly what I told her!" Madison exclaimed. "You absolutely _have_ to get it. You'll never forgive yourself if you don't." The words were meant to be encouraging, but the look in her eye said that she was absolutely serious. It was actually a little scary.

Twisting around, I reached for the tag that hung underneath my arm, stabbing into me. Just as my fingers took a hold of it, Madison reached out and slapped my arm away. "It doesn't matter what it costs. Can't you feel it? That dress is _meant_ for you."

I dropped the tag, trying to figure out how to tell them that I only had so much money, and I would never truly be comfortable with the idea that Derek wanted to pay for everything. I certainly couldn't get used to the fact that his parents – or, at least, his mother and sister – wanted to buy me anything that I couldn't afford.

I also couldn't get used to the fact that these two were so into their clothes. I had always been interested in finding what fit me right and what colors looked good on me, but I wasn't much of a shopper. I only went in search for clothes when I needed them. I could tell, though, that this was a hobby of theirs, something that they wanted to share with me. The majority of me was honored that they wanted to induct me into the family so quickly, if only because Derek chose me out of a million plus girls in the world. But there was still a part of me that was a little freaked out by the intensity in which they shopped.

I turned to face the mirror, squaring my bare shoulders and narrowing my eyes at the reflection. I almost didn't recognize the girl staring back at me. I'd had a little while to get used to the ascension changes, but I was still awed by the fact that it was still _me_ underneath it all. It almost didn't feel right. Unrealistic, somehow. But there was something eerily pretty about the girl reflected in the mirror. As I stared, I couldn't help but quirk my lips up into a tiny smile. "Okay," I agreed. "Okay, I'll buy the dress."

Madison gave a little cheer as if I'd just made the right decision for a big cornerstone of my life. Victoria grinned broadly, reaching up to push her sunglasses, which sat on top of her head, a little farther back into her hair. "Madison," she said, "go up to the check-out with Emily. I've got to go sit down on one of those benches outside. My feet are killing me."

I couldn't help but glance down at Victoria's footwear. The woman was incredibly kind and smart, with enough humor and sassiness to fit in with the Stanton family, but she also harbored a strong sense of fashion that would better fit on the streets of Paris or New York. I blinked a few times at Victoria's black stiletto boots and then looked back up at Madison. The boots were a little over the top, but she didn't look like a mom that was trying too hard. She actually looked younger, more like she could be an older sister or close friend instead of a mother.

Madison shrugged. "I told her not to wear them. But does she listen to me? _No_. For the sake of fashion, she said. I think she's insane." She kicked off from the dressing room doorway and said, "Go ahead and change. I'll be out here waiting. Come find me."

I heard her footsteps walking away from me as I shimmied out of the dress and back into my regular clothes. Tying the neck of the halter top around the plastic hanger, I placed it on the hook on the back of the door and picked up the price tag. I stared at it for a moment. The dress was _fifty_ dollars. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but it lacked anything that I would think made it worth that much. As a money hoarder, I pondered on whether or not I would even spend _twenty_ dollars on it, much less double that.

But Madison and Victoria had insisted that it was the one, and I had the feeling that they would bite my head off if I said it was too expensive. I'd already been told that price didn't matter. With a heavy sigh, I reached out for my purse and slung it over my shoulder, mentally calculating the cash I had in my wallet. I had a debit card that I hardly used – it had a good lot of money in the account, too, since I struggled to make simple price decisions and usually voted to wait until something went on sale. I could use the card if I didn't have cash.

Grabbing the dress, I laid it over my arm and unlocked the dressing room door. I could see Victoria sitting on a bench out in the middle of the mall, one stiletto boot crossed over a knee, her phone in hand, completely surrounded by shopping bags. My eyes scanned over the shop, searching for a dark, curly head of hair. Eventually I managed to catch sight of Madison over in the back corner of the shop. As if she knew I'd seen her, she looked up and met my gaze. I could see her broad smile all the way across the shop as she dropped whatever she was looking at and hurried over to meet me.

"Come on, future sister-in-law," she commanded, looping an arm through my elbow. "Mom says that we need to go get manis and pedis." As she said it, I looked down at my toes in my flip-flops, with their chipped paint. My fingernails echoed the same sentiment. Maybe a manicure/pedicure was a good idea, even though I never went to go get them because I thought they were ridiculously expensive. My mother went and got her nails done every three weeks. I still hadn't managed to figure out how she went without a bit of guilt.

"How is she going to get her toes done with those boots?" I asked.

Madison shrugged. "They give you cheap little foam flip-flops, and she can sit underneath the UV table. Anyway, it's her fault. I told her not to wear them," she reminded me. Giving me a nudge, she pushed me towards the end of the line. "Anyway, I say you need one, because you've got to wear sandals with that dress. What size are you? I might have something you can borrow."

"Um, seven," I answered as I laid the dress across the counter.

"I'm an eight," Madison replied with a slight groan. "But there are probably some sevens in the back of my closet. I think I might even have those nude wedges still," she told me. She gave me a smile and said, "They hurt my toes, so I quit wearing them. I mean, I knew they were too small for me but I figured that I would handle it because they were so darn cute."

The scanner beeped as the red line read the price tag. The girl behind the counter gave us the price. Before I could even react, Madison leaned forward and swiped her card. "I got this," she told the girl, picking up the keypad pen. She quickly hit a few buttons and then signed her name with flourish across the line.

"No she doesn't!" I exclaimed, but it was already too late.

"Don't listen to her," Madison said, directing her attention to the girl behind the counter. She didn't look like she cared who paid for it. Actually, she didn't even look like she cared if the dress was paid for. She probably only cared that she got paid for her time spent here. "She can't handle anyone doing anything for her. I've told my brother that she needs psychological help, but…."

The girl gave a lazy nod and stuffed the receipt into the bag. Madison snatched it up and turned her back on the counter. "Madison," I called after her, running to catch up. "I have money," I said. "Here, let me get you at least a fifty."

"Stop it," she said. "You may not have the official certificate yet, but you're a Stanton now, and we all take care of each other. That's how we're different from the rest of corporate America – our funds are for everyone." She waved a hand in my general direction and added, "I thought you already knew that, considering the necklace you're wearing."

I glanced down at my neck, where the necklace Derek had given me laid against my collarbone. I couldn't help but smile at it. In a way, Madison was right. Derek had said that I was a Stanton now, even though I didn't share his last name… yet. But, I realized, I fully intended to. If Derek asked me if I would marry him tonight, I'd say yes in a heartbeat.

"Yeah, okay," I conceded. I would let her win this time. But in the future, she'd have to learn that even though I was a part of the family, I didn't need them to take care of me financially. It would crush my pride if I couldn't prove that I would care for myself. "Thanks," I added.

"No problem." She replied, pushing open the store's glass door. She handed me my bag as Victoria stood up, tucking her phone into her purse.

"There's this great salon downtown," Victoria said, "where I know the nail lady, Susan. She's really sweet. And great at what she does, too."

Together, we slipped out of the mall and clambered into Victoria's fancy car. Madison had called shotgun, which had earned her a short glare from her mother, but I didn't mind. Harboring all of our bags with me, I buckled my seatbelt and leaned forward, my chin nearly resting on the shoulder of Madison's seat as I listened in to the conversation.

Sometimes, I couldn't believe how human the Aces were. I was one of them, now, but I didn't _feel_ any different. For the most part. There was the fact that my boyfriend made my skin tingle… _literally_, and that I could hear his voice in my mind, but aside from that, they were perfectly normal. Victoria talked about work, and Madison talked about school. They talked about distant family members – some that I had met, some that I hadn't. They talked about Zach and his college schoolwork. Victoria voiced the worry that Carissa was pulling away from the family more than she usually did, and Madison promised to play the spy for her. They talked about Jack and his college – he was a freshman, like I would be – and they talked about Derek when he was a kid, telling me all sorts of stories that he hadn't bothered to grace me with.

In return, I told them pieces of my life. I told them about my love for music, about the accident that took my hearing, and about the shop when my mom had first opened it. Madison and I were still discussing the pros and cons of homeschooling versus public school when we walked into the nail salon. They weren't very busy in the middle of the day on a Friday, so it was easy for us to get seats in the big, overstuffed chairs over footbaths. We continued to talk about the facets of our lives, even going so far as to discuss what Derek had in plan for me. Victoria became tight-lipped when our conversation turned to my impending date, so I assumed that she had some sort of idea as to where her son was taking me but didn't want to ruin the surprise. Madison, however, seemed intent to wring the answer out of her mother one way or another. It was nice to bond with them like that. I realized, as a small woman with dark hair that had a habit of speaking to her co-worker in another language painted my toenails, that I was worried that I wouldn't get along with Victoria and Madison, that after a little while of knowing me, learning who I really was, they would dub me inadequate for Derek.

But that wasn't the case in the least. I probably should have listened to Derek when he said that his family would love me without having to think about it. But my insecurities had gotten the best of me. Still, Madison proved to be a good person to have on my side, and Victoria wasn't anything like the crazy mother-in-law that was so often portrayed in books and movies. She was almost like another friend instead of a mother. It made me like her all the more.

When we were done, Victoria swiped her credit card. And like her daughter, she refused to let me pay for myself. She was a little less intimidating with her stilettos in her arms and thin foam flip-flops on her feet so that she didn't mess up her bright red paint job. A bright white flower was on her toe, a large silver bead acting as the center. But she still was able to put the fear in me, so I eventually gave in. It was clear that I wasn't going to win against the Stantons anytime soon.

We returned to the house. I could feel the moment I stepped in, carrying a few bags and Victoria's boots, that my significant wasn't there. A part of me was a little crestfallen. I'd been depending on him being there to greet me. It had been just a few hours, and it wasn't the longest time we'd been apart, but it _felt_ like it had been the longest. Maybe it was because there was so much anticipation riding on this moment.

"This is good," Madison assured me, breezing in past me. "If Carissa is home, we can force her to help us get you ready."

"It's only just past two," I said.

Madison turned to look at me, one eyebrow raised. "I know you're this gorgeous girl and all, but these things still take _time_. Think about wedding days – the brides spend all day getting ready! You need to go take a bath and wash your hair and make sure that your legs aren't prickly, and then we've got to get your hair and makeup done and we've got to get you dressed. Not to mention, I've got to go dig through my closet and try to find those wedges I was telling you about."

I blinked a few times, just staring at her. I would have never spent that much time trying to get ready. At the most, I would take a shower and blow dry my hair, but Madison was making it sound like much more than that. Victoria stepped in right as I went to open my mouth and ask a (probably stupid) question concerning this ritual for getting me ready.

"Thanks for grabbing my boots," she said, swiping them from me. "You would not believe how hard it is to drive with those flip-flop things. Thank God the paint is dry." She kicked one of the salon-issued shoes out of her way and continued, grabbing some of her shopping bags and taking them back to her bedroom.

Madison and I watched her gingerly walk down the hall, as if her toenails still weren't dry, before she shoved me in the back. "Now hurry up. We've got to get you ready. And I think we're going to have to talk Jack into playing the guard. We don't want Derek to see you before you're ready."

"I thought that was just for weddings." I said.

"Does it look like I care? No. And it goes the same for dates, because usually you don't live with each other. You don't get those kids of boring luxuries until after you've been married for like, five years." She gave me another push and said, "Now go."

# # #

Night was starting to fall as I sat down in the desk chair in the bedroom I shared with Derek. I had heard him come in the house with my mind, but I was forbidden from going to see him. Both of us had thought that it was stupid, but Jack and Madison worked as a tag-team; Jack wouldn't let him get to the bedroom door to see me and Madison leaned against our side so I couldn't go see him.

If only they knew what it felt like to know that your significant was _right there_. But they seemed to think that it was a game, and I eventually caved about the same time that Derek was debating pummeling his brother into a pancake. Instead, we kept up a steady stream of conversation in our minds. He and Jack had eventually slipped off to play videogames. Carissa had stopped in and, playing along with the rest of us, had gotten a change of clothes for Derek so he could look a little more pristine on our date.

"You know, I think this really is good," I said as Madison and Victoria worked together to weave my hair into a now-curly up-do. It had taken Madison a good thirty minutes to an hour to curl all of my hair to what she deemed acceptable, and then it was even longer for her to put it up. I was starting to understand why girls skipped out on school the day of prom. It was just so much work to look pretty.

"We're almost done," Madison replied. She'd been repeating the same line like a mantra for the last forty-five minutes, and I was starting to get really antsy. I tried to meet Victoria's gaze. She was the only other person in the room that had been imprinted and knew what it was like to be separated from her significant, but she just gave me a slightly apologetic smile. Clearly she, like everyone else, believed that the distance would be, in theory, good for us. Especially at this moment, where they were acting like I was going to some grand ball.

"Close your eyes." I barely had time to squeeze them shut before Madison doused me with half a can of hairspray. I was pretty sure that I should avoid all open flames, just in case my hair was now a flammable mess. "There. You're gorgeous. What did I say, mom? That color is just _perfect_ on her."

"I'll go make sure Derek is ready," Victoria said, glancing at the clock. "Getting you ready took longer than I thought. I hope you two aren't late." She didn't elaborate and instead slipped out of the bedroom before I had the chance to question her further.

It wasn't long before she came back and beckoned me to follow. I stood up a little shakily on Madison's shoes. They were different from the nude wedges that she'd wanted me to wear because she couldn't find those anywhere. But she'd eventually found me a pair of sandals with an open toe and a slight heel that tied up my ankle. She said that they weren't what she had specifically imagined in her head, but that they would do. I was just grateful that they weren't as high as the wedges. I was clumsy enough without adding heels to the mix.

The skirt breezed behind me as I made my way down the hall. Madison stayed behind me as I reached the end of the hallway. I could feel Derek right there, which made me pick up my speed as I rushed to the mouth of the hallway. He was sitting on the couch next to Jack, a videogame controller in his hand. His eyes darted up to me and then back to the screen. But that only lasted a second before he did a double-take and completely ignored his game, even after Jack nudged him hard and shouted, "I just _killed_ you, bro!" He, too, then turned to look at me. He and Derek just stared, a little slack-jawed, and it was enough to make me blush.

Derek stood up fluidly and tossed the controller back. I couldn't tell if he had purposely thrown it at Jack, but it hit his brother hard enough to knock him out of whatever daze he'd been in. Jack sputtered and sent daggers at his brother's back, but Derek didn't seem to care as he came forward and caught me, his hands cupping my face as he brought his forehead to mine. "Hey, gorgeous," he murmured in a voice so low I was positive that no one else had heard him.

"Hey yourself," I replied in the same low tone. His calm and comfort washed through me. I knew that my touch was doing the same for him. It made gooseflesh rise on my arms, all the way up to my shoulders. It still blew my mind that we were perfect for each other, that there was a piece of me that made me his distinct other half.

"I've got something for you," he said. I was still aware of the fact that Jack, Madison, and Victoria were all watching us as Derek headed towards the hall closet. He had pulled on his black leather jacket since it was getting chilly out – not something that I had actually planned for. My shoulders and legs were bare, all the way down to my professionally painted toenails. After a few moments of rummaging, Derek laid something over his arm. As he turned back to me, I realized that he had a brown leather jacket in his grasp. He held it out to me for inspection and I couldn't help but grin. "I figured it would be cold out." He held it out so I could slip my arms into the sleeves. The fit was perfect. I rose up onto my tiptoes for a moment to press my lips to his chastely.

"So, what do we have planned?" I asked.

"It's a surprise," he replied, draping an arm over my shoulder. "Come on."

**More fluff. But I think you'll like what's coming up next… (:**

**Thanks for reading! Leave me a review! Peace (:**


	21. A Step Forward

**BreeTico – I'm so impatient; I hate waiting for anything. In the case that I finish an update before at least three days have passed, I hate waiting to update it. Lol (:**

**Complete Chocoholic – Oh, good. Lol (; Interestingly enough, I sort of hate clothes shopping, but I like to imagine things that my characters wear. I even went through a brief stint a few years ago where I tried to design dresses. Haha! **

**Guest – Me too! This is one of my newest stories, if not **_**the**_** newest, and it's the one farthest along. I just love Derek and Emily way too much. (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_21: A Step Forward_

"Where are we?" I asked, peering out of the window. I'd lived in Chicago my entire life, but there were pieces of it that were still unknown to me. Places like this, really, were the ones that I never knew. It was one of those little clubs, the kind that had a huge stage for live bands and a long bar. I'd never even been to one of these before. It was kind of pointless, since I didn't have my hearing when I was able to come to one of these things.

"It's where we're playing tomorrow." Derek said, leaning forward to glance out of my window. He'd had to pull the car up to the curb and park parallel. Even if I had my driver's license, I didn't think that I would be able to do that. "Tonight it's another band. I went to high school with them." He continued. "I figured that you'd want to listen to music."

"It's awesome," I said a little breathlessly. I was actually really ecstatic, like I'd just learned that one of my favorite books was being turned into a movie or something. The thought of being like all of those other couples who came here to enjoy music was nearly overwhelming, for some strange reason. I actually had tears of joy in my eyes as Derek opened his car door. Too dazed to bother opening mine, he came around the front and yanked on the handle. I still just sat there.

"Come on, sweetheart," Derek said, holding out a hand. I took it and maneuvered my feet onto the sidewalk. I could walk in heels to an extent. Madison's weren't very tall, but they were sort of tight and, due to the fact that they went up my ankle, they made me feel a little rigid and stiff. Derek smirked and barely held back a chuckle as I grabbed a hold of his hand and pulled myself up. The moment I thought I had my feet underneath me, he gave me a quick yank, pulling me forward so that I collided with him.

"Look at me, being all clumsy," I said sarcastically, pressing my palm over his chest, right where my name was permanently tattooed onto her skin. Derek slipped his arms around my waist underneath my jacket. The sleeves of his were cold against the fabric of my dress, and I was suddenly aware of how chilly it was. It was only mid-September, but I was known for being cold almost all the time.

"What can I say? You just throw yourself at me all the time," he replied, his smile broad and sarcastic.

"Watch it," I said as Derek's fingers dug into my sides, holding me close. "We don't have a doghouse yet, but if I need to I can go to the store and get one. You can sleep in it tonight." I told him.

Derek just laughed and leaned forward to press his lips to mine. I could tell that he had something going on in the deepest corners of his mind, something that he didn't really want me to know just yet. He had no intentions of keeping it secret from me indefinitely, just for now. Usually, I figured that I would be pouncing on him for not telling me something at all, but I trusted him with more than my life. I'd give him everything without blinking.

Derek broke away first, giving me his easy smile. He took a hold of my hand and pulled me forward onto the sidewalk, closing the door behind me. He kept his arm around my waist as he locked the doors and led me into the building. For those fifteen feet of walking, I found myself reveling in the fact that he was holding me so close to his side. It was a physical announcement – that I was his, and he was mine.

We stepped up to the front door. "Hey, man," the bouncer said, clapping Derek's free hand. His eyes turned me to me and he added, "Who's this?"

"My girlfriend, Emily," Derek said proudly. It made me smile. "Sweetheart, this is Craig. He's an old friend of mine. He graduated two years before me."

"Nice to meet you," Craig said. My eyes ran over his broad chest, accentuated by the tight black T-shirt. Derek noticed me looking; his arm tightened around me and he leaned forward to press a kiss to my temple. I gave him a short mental scolding, and he just grinned in return. "I'm going to need to see an ID," Craig said.

I blinked, looking up at him. I was over eighteen but under twenty-one, so it wasn't like I wasn't allowed to be here. But I didn't have a single photo ID. I didn't have a driver's license, and there was never really a need for me to get anything. I had a passport up in the closet at my mother's house, but that was the only thing that was government-issued.

Derek, reading my thoughts, said, "She's nineteen, Craig. I swear to it."

Craig paused. He looked like he wanted to believe Derek, but he didn't want to get into any trouble with his boss if it turned out that I was under eighteen. Before I could even think about what I was really doing, I reached out and put my hand on his arm. He flinched away from my icy fingers, but his eyes met mine and I said, in the calmest voice that I could imagine, "It's okay, Craig. I'm nineteen. You believe us, don't you?" I let go of his arm and waited, feeling like there was something swelling inside my chest.

"Yeah," he said after a moment. "Yeah, I believe you. Here, give me your hand." I held it out and he produced a thick marker from his back pocket. He drew a giant X on the back of my hand and then nodded to Derek. Before there could even be a chance that Craig would realize that he never saw my ID, Derek pulled me into the joint.

As we got farther away from the front door, the more of what I had done had come crashing down on me. When I learned what my ability was, I was worried that people were going to fear getting too close to me because they didn't want to be compelled. I'd made a vow with myself not to use it unless I really needed to. But I'd just used it voluntarily on someone who wasn't even an Ace. Guilt pressed inside my chest and I bit my lip as Derek led me to a table. It was set high up, and there were already people gathered around it, drinks sitting on napkins. The only girl sitting at the table turned around, and despite the dim light, I recognized her instantly. Tory.

"Hey!" She exclaimed. "I didn't think you'd come." She swiveled around in her chair, knocking Johnny in the back. He turned around and pinched her ear. She swatted him away, and I couldn't help but giggle at it. The two of them were perfect for each other – if they were Aces, I would assume that they were soul mates. Maybe soul mates existed outside of just Aces; it just didn't mean the same things. They couldn't talk to each other in their minds, and they didn't gain new abilities upon their ascension. But maybe… maybe they still existed. "Ooh, girlfriend," she cooed in my general direction. "You look _hot_. That new?"

"Um," I said, looking down at my dress, slightly uncomfortable shoes, and leather jacket, "yeah."

"I wish we were the same size. I'd steal that from you in a heartbeat. But you're too skinny," she said, shrugging like it didn't really bother her all that much. I wanted to say that I doubted that she was much larger than me, if any at all. Johnny said something to her and she turned around to answer.

She had distracted me, momentarily, from what I'd done to Craig outside. If any of them knew how I'd gotten in proof on an ID, they probably wouldn't be sitting there with me. _You're not a monster, Emily._ The words were soft, but I could still feel the weight of a scolding hidden underneath it all.

_I shouldn't have done that._ I said back.

_It's your ability, sweetheart. There's nothing wrong with using your ability._

_Just because it's my ability doesn't mean that I need to use it on unsuspecting people for my own gain. Do you remember what you told me about the Visionary? That story about how the Watsons and other families were using their abilities just so they could be of a higher status, or get away with things? I just did that, Derek. I did exactly what made the imprints disappear in the first place._

_It's nothing like that_, Derek insisted. He actually sounded like he was getting a little annoyed at me. The moment I thought that, I heard, _I'm not annoyed with _you, _I'm annoyed that you can't see it. You're nothing like the Watsons. You didn't compel him to give you money or let you get by without an X. You just sped up along the process – I could see it, he was going to believe us anyway._

_That doesn't make it right._

Derek reached out and took a hold of my arm almost sharply. It didn't hurt, but the movement was so unexpected that I gasped. Knowing that he wasn't hurting me, he didn't let go. Tory, though, heard my gasp and turned to look. I could see her eyes narrow in on the fact that Derek was grasping onto my wrist. To her, it might have looked rough. But he wasn't – his fingers just completely encased my arm, and he was pulling me close so he could whisper in my ear.

"You're nothing like the Watsons," he said quietly, his lips brushing against my ear in a way that made my spine shiver. Out of the corner of my eye, I could still see Tory watching us carefully. It almost looked like she was glaring at Derek instead of me. "You didn't do anything wrong in the least. You are the most beautiful, the sweetest, kindest girl that ever lived. There's not an evil bone inside you." I couldn't help but smile. And it was genuine, despite the fact that I was struggling to keep tears from pooling in my eyes. I saw Tory look appeased that we weren't fighting and turn back around.

"I'll never do it again," I said.

"I wouldn't make that promise. It'll come in handy one day." He said quietly. He released my wrist, his fingers moving to tilt my chin up. His lips brushed against mine, just barely, as he spoke.

"You're such a jerk, Derek Stanton." I whispered. He didn't answer me; instead he just kissed me, his lips moving against mine. I realized that I was pressing up against him, and his hands were resting on my hips. I knew, deep down inside, that I would be embarrassed if anyone saw us together like this. But it seemed like everyone had, so in the end maybe it didn't matter all that much. Besides, it was dark, and there probably wouldn't be anyone that I knew here.

"Hey lovebirds!" Johnny called, breaking us apart. "The opening act is finished. Are you two going to pay attention or continue sucking face?" Tory nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbow. She rolled her eyes, but she was giving me a smile. I had to admit, though, that there was a little bit of a shadowed look to her eyes, like she wasn't sure if she liked what she saw earlier. She didn't have the entire story, though, and I doubted that she would confront Derek about grabbing my wrist. But then again, she might. I wasn't exactly good friends with her, after all.

"Come on, man. Let me get you a drink," Tank offered. Hanging on his arm was a girl who looked to be about my age, maybe a little older. Her eyes were smothered in dark makeup, and her lipstick was far too bright for her skin complexion. She seemed to think that she looked good, though, and Tank didn't seem to mind. I wondered if she was one of his conquests. Or maybe she was a groupie.

"Nah, dude," Derek replied, leaning forward to nuzzle my ear. I could feel the blush starting up my cheeks, but he didn't seem to mind it at all. In fact, I would say that Derek enjoyed getting caught by other people. He liked for everyone to know that I was his. I didn't exactly have a problem with it; I just hated to be interrupted later on. "I don't drink, remember?"

"What about you?" Tank asked me, giving me a smile that I'm sure was supposed to resemble some sort of flirt to it.

"I'm underage, Tank." I replied, holding up my left hand. The black X that Craig had marked there was bold against my pale skin. "I wouldn't want to get you into trouble or anything," I teased. The girl I'd never met sidled a little closer to Tank, as if she thought that I might try to steal him away, despite the fact that she'd already seen me kissing Derek.

"Party poopers, the two of you!" He exclaimed. I had the feeling that we were a little late to his party; he'd probably already had a little too much to drink. He and the girl left the table momentarily, shuffling back up to the bar. All of us watched them go, and then collectively turned around and faced to the stage.

It was lit up with a few lights, so it kind of looked a little dark. A shiny set of drums was in the very back, a tall microphone in the front. As we watched, a band dressed in black and leather stepped out onto the stage. The lead singer had his hair sticking up all over the place, and it was dyed bleach blonde. The others had darker hair, both hanging long or cut short and gelled into a Mohawk.

"These are the guys you went to school with?" I whispered.

Derek wrapped his arms around my middle, my back pressed to his chest. He rested his chin on my shoulder. "They went a little crazy after we graduated and realized that they weren't subject to clothing rules anymore."

I laughed and leaned a little farther back. The set lasted for an hour and a half. Tank and his girl for the night, assuming that was what she was, sat at the table and pounded down drinks. About halfway through, PJ showed up in a uniform for the sports store down at the mall. That same time, Tory and Johnny started making out. Derek and I just swayed back and forth to the beat of the music.

For a first date, I didn't mind the fact that it wasn't just the two of us. In fact, it felt a little more personal that we were with his friends. They were people that had been a part of his life for a lot longer than I had, and the fact that he wanted me to hang out with them and be a part of their group meant a lot to me. Besides, the two of us were together, alone, a lot of the time.

In the end, I decided that this was one of the best official first dates that I'd ever been on. And there was something exhilarating about knowing that it was going to be my last.

# # #

I dropped onto the bed with a heavy sigh and leaned forward to undo the straps going up my ankles. Kicking the shoes off, I fell back and closed my eyes. I was tired, since we'd stayed out late watching the band and afterward had gone to a fast food restaurant to get food with the others. The moment Tory found out that the reason I was so dressed up while the others were wearing jeans was because we were on a date, she teased Derek endlessly about not taking me to a fancy restaurant.

Derek stepped out of his shoes and pulled his shirt over his head, revealing my name on his chest and the dragon crawling across his back. He tossed the shirt into the dirty clothes hamper. Our jackets hung right next to each other on hooks that were on the back of the door. I liked the look of them hanging together like that.

Derek loped over to me, stopping when his jeans brushed my knees. He leaned forward and put his hands on top of mine, our fingers threading together almost to their own accord. "I have something that I want to ask you." He said. At first, I thought that it wasn't much, but by the hesitation I felt in his mind, I couldn't be for sure. I peeked at him, and he looked like he was really chewing on something important.

I pulled on his hands and used him to pull myself up. "What is it?" I asked. I couldn't help but feel a spot of panic growing in my chest. He was almost never nervous around me. The only other time I'd ever seen him hesitate was when he wanted to kiss me when we first imprinted.

Derek dropped into a crouch in front of me, cupping my face with his hands. His thumb smoothed over my cheek in a constant calming motion. "It's nothing like that, sweetheart," he said. "I forget about the fact that you tend to overreact."

"You scared me," I accused, deciding to ignore the "overreact" statement. I did _not_ overreact. "You had something on your mind earlier, and now you're acting all strange… what was I supposed to expect?" I asked in my defense. He _was _acting weird, and it was putting me on edge.

"I know," he said with a sigh. He looked away for a moment, and I waited. Finally, his hazel-green eyes returned to mine and he admitted in a low voice, "I'm just nervous, that's all."

"About what?" I asked. I could feel my eyebrows pulling together. He reached up and smoothed a thumb in between them, and I got a quick mental thought about protecting me from wrinkles. If I didn't feel like this was so serious, I probably would have laughed. "You know you can tell me anything," I told him, softening my voice. Seriously, there was something that was bothering him. A lot.

"I want to ask you something."

"So ask me." I replied.

Derek's eyes searched mine for a long time, hazel meeting gray. I waited impatiently, trying not to wiggle around in my seat or say something. I knew that he would tell me – there was no backing out of this now – but he would tell me on his own time. He had seemed to want to tell me, or ask me, right then. But then he hesitated again. My heart sped up a little bit. Derek rubbed his knuckles over his chest, right along my name tattooed into his skin. "Emily," he said quietly, "I love you. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone or anything." He paused, and I began to nervously gnaw on my bottom lip. What was he getting at? Was he going to tell me that he changed his mind, that he didn't want me? Or was he going to tell me this was a big mistake? Situations blurred in my mind; all of them bad, all of them embarrassing.

"What is it?" I forced out. My voice sounded strangled, I was so scared.

"We promised each other that we were going to take things slow, remember?" He asked. I gave a slow, exaggerated nod. Where was he getting at? "But I'm tired of waiting, Emily. I really am. I want you to be mine, completely and totally. I want you to be Emily _Stanton_." Right then, an idea hit me. This was what he'd been getting at? But I was nineteen! My eyes immediately flooded with unshed tears. "Emily, baby, would you marry me?"

I sat there, stunned. In the heat of the moment, I hadn't noticed that Derek had shifted to the point where one knee was on the ground in the classical proposal stance. I opened my mouth to say something – my mind was screaming _yes, yes, say yes!_ – but I don't think he heard. Because I began to cry. Tears ran down my cheeks, smearing my makeup and dripping down onto the skirt of my dress.

Derek seemed shocked for half a moment, and then he moved forward as if he was going to wrap his arms around me. I quickly put a palm against his bare chest, aware of the fact that his skin was searing my palm. Maybe I was just going insane. He looked at me with hurt in his eyes. He didn't want me to cry, and he hated the fact that the words he said had made me cry. I could tell, just by looking at him, that he thought I was offended and he wished that he could take it all back.

I was nineteen. I wasn't the youngest girl in America to get engaged, but there were plenty of years in the future for me. And then there was my mom. What would she think? And my dad. And all of Derek's friends. And Xavier. Oh, God. But then I remembered, looking at him, that I'd known I would marry him in the long run. I'd known that he was it for me. I'd even said at some point when I was getting ready that if he asked me to marry him I wouldn't hesitate.

But now I was. And for what?

I sniffled loudly. I opened my mouth, trying to find my voice, but it was lost somewhere, stuck in my throat. I coughed and started wildly nodding. Derek just stared at me, as if he wasn't sure I was answering him. I took a hold of the back of his neck and brought his lips to mine.

The moment our lips touched, fire erupted inside me. I was _engaged_. I'd just said that I would marry him. He _proposed_. Like normal, non-Ace guys do! Except without the ring, of course. I'd already learned about Ace weddings in a crash course from Madison. But he _proposed_.

Derek moved to sit on the bed next to me, never breaking the kiss. It was just like always, but I could feel something more… I was engaged, after all. Did that change things? Almost as if I was testing something, I pushed my mind closer to his. Instead of carefully keeping a safe distance away, Derek's mind met me full force, breaking free of him like the floodgates had busted open.

Almost immediately, our minds began to meld. I felt like there were two different things going on – on one plane, Derek was kissing me softly, almost as if he was barely giving me a peck. On the other, it was like I'd stepped on a live wire. I could feel his hand – his actual hand, pulling my carefully curled hair from the pins his mother and sister had worked so hard to keep in place. His fingers tangled in my coal black curls, pulling me closer to him.

Our minds continued to press together until I felt like we were just one. It felt like our minds were nearly completely melded together. A ghostly hand pressed against my cheek, another one running a finger over my collarbone. I remembered this – this was where Derek had pulled back before, in the kitchen at PJ and Johnny's. But he didn't stop and neither did I as our physical bodies seemed to be frozen and our minds continued to move.

I wasn't sure how long it had been, but then I felt it – the zing inside of me. It was almost like I'd stuck my finger in a light socket or had been stung by a horde of bees, but it was pleasant. I felt it all the way from my head to my toes, shaking my entire world. All there was was Derek. He was my everything – every thought that crossed my mind, every memory that unburied itself, everything that he was flooded into me. That little locked box in the very back of his mind opened, and his deepest characteristics burst out. It was like his own Pandora's box. I could feel the same happening to me. Everything that I was was shared with him, radiating from me and into his mind.

Eventually, I snapped back into myself. I was still kissing Derek, and he had one hand tangled in my hair still, the other resting on my side. We hadn't even moved. Well… not much, anyway. I pulled away from him just barely. His eyes met mine, and they were glowing with warmth. "Emily," he breathed.

I couldn't even hope the smile that crept across my face. This was what we'd been holding out on? It was one of the most amazing things I'd ever felt – pure love. I opened my mouth to say something to him, but instead I hissed and immediately went to grip my wrist. It burned with a searing pain that felt like something being etched into my skin with fire.

Derek lunged forward and grabbed a hold of my arm as the pain began to fade, bringing it out for both of us to really look at. Tattooed on my wrist was half of a three-point flame. Curving around the outside was Derek's name, printed in an easy cursive. On the open side of the flame, there was a tiny eight. When I turned my wrist sideways, it looked like an infinity sign. I just stared at it blankly. I was pretty sure that Derek had told me that at some point, I might get a flame tattoo like his. But I hadn't expected it to be in this way, and I hadn't expected it to just magically show up on my skin.

Derek let out a heavy breath and brought his own arm next to mine. I could tell that his hand was shaking. He was excited and nervous at the same time, just like I was. Pressing the warm skin of his arm against mine, I blinked once, and it was like our tattoos were on in the same – two infinity signs (I didn't like to think of them as eights) nestled against each other in the perfect center of a three-pronged flame. Our names wavered along the outsides.

Tears flooded my eyes. Every worry I'd ever had seemed to evaporate with him at my side. I had his name on me, forever. He had my name _twice_. I was engaged to the love of my life, my soul mate. I didn't know if it could get much better than that.

I looked up at him. "I love you."

**Yay or nay? Slightly strange to write, I might say. I'm not really sure why; maybe I'll find that out later.**

**Pardon any spelling/grammar mistakes please. I uploaded without editing because I wanted to get it out to you readers.**

**Thanks for reading; leave me a review please, I beg of you! (;**

**Peace (:**


	22. Announcements

**BreeTico - Lol! (: Last chapter was a little loaded with emotional happenings. Was it too overwhelming? :P**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_22: Announcements_

I woke up to the sound of a fire alarm blaring overhead. I sat up, my heartbeat immediately spiking and waking up Derek. "Wha-?" He asked, his eyes a little droopy in his sleepiness. I knew that our sleeping next to each other rejuvenated the other, but we couldn't heal sleep. If we didn't get enough of it we were still a little tired. I went to throw off the covers on the bed, still realizing that I was wearing my sunset orange dress. It was still tied loosely around my neck, the skirt shucked up at my thighs. "The fire alarm's going off!" I exclaimed, nearly rolling out of the bed. My feet hit the floor just as Derek bolted upright. His eyes were wide with fear, most of it on whether or not I would be okay.

I didn't bother to grab my shoes. Derek didn't bother to grab his shirt; he only grabbed his phone as he rushed to the bedroom door. He pressed the back of his hand against it for a brief moment before throwing it open. I tried to tighten the knot of my halter top dress as he herded me into the hall. We made it down the majority of the way before I collided right into Madison.

"False alarm!" She called out. My heart beating in my chest seemed to shudder. The two of us had freaked out over nothing. "We burned the cinnamon toast." Now that she mentioned it, I could smell cinnamon in the air. It was a little strong and worse than it usually was, thanks to the burnt bread smell that chased it in the air. Derek, still shirtless, wrapped an arm around my waist.

"Cinnamon toast?" He echoed, looking over my shoulder and peering into the kitchen. Madison narrowed her eyes at my dress, all twisted around and a little uncomfortable. She was probably thinking the same thing I was – the dress wasn't made for sleeping in. I tugged on the cock-eyed hem, feeling my cheeks blush. Madison couldn't make any assumptions about what we did, though, could she? I mean, the only thing that I had to show for last night was my new wrist tattoo, which was small enough that it could be virtually unseen if I was careful. Not that I wanted to hide it; it wasn't something to be embarrassed about or ashamed of. It was just… strange, I don't know. Derek, reading my mind, squeezed my side once.

"Yeah. We've got brunch at grandma's today. Don't you remember?" She asked, her gaze shifting from me to her older brother. Apparently, he was supposed to be the one that kept me up-to-date on family plans, even though Victoria and Madison had spent the majority of the day with me yesterday. Derek's eyes slid over to me. I could tell that he agreed with me, but he also had the fact that there'd been a lot that he'd wanted – needed – to say to me yesterday. Not all of it had been said because we got… distracted.

"What time?" I asked, glancing down at my dress. I didn't even know what time it was to begin with.

"Like, an hour and a half, tops?" Madison replied. She looked over at me and said, "Derek promised he would tell you. I figured that he would set an alarm and everything." She explained. "But if you hurry, you'll be fine." She gave me a smile just as her mother rounded the corner.

Seeing Victoria was different than seeing Madison. Madison found my shyness and awkwardness and completely overtaken attitude about Derek as something funny and cute. Victoria did the same thing, but to her, I had the feeling that it was something much more. Madison looked at Derek and me and saw her older brother and future sister-in-law. Victoria saw her son and his future wife (the word sent shivers down my spine.) If I'd been looking at my kid and thinking that he or she was going to be happy in their relationship for the rest of their life, I'd feel different than if it was just a brother or sister. But then again, I could only assume, since I had neither.

Still, I blushed. I was sure that I was a violent crimson, but nobody seemed bothered in the least by the fact that I was still in my dress from my date with Derek. And I didn't think either of them had noticed our new tattoos – well, _my _new tattoo. Derek's was just updated. I self-consciously ran my wrist over the fabric of my dress and forced on a bright smile.

"Sorry, did we wake you?" She asked. Today she looked a little less like an intense shopper and more like a mother. Her jeans and light blue button-up were more conservative than stilettos. She had her curly hair tied in a side ponytail, and she was virtually makeup free. "I left the oven for five minutes, but I got distracted." She admitted. She didn't make a face or even acknowledge the fact that I hadn't bothered to change out of my clothes; and neither had Derek. "We've got to be and grandma's in a little more than an hour." She warned, and motioned for us to turn around and go back down the hall. She went to the closet and pulled out a stepladder so she could shut off the alarm.

Derek and I shuffled back to our bedroom. I yawned and rubbed my eyes with my knuckles. Derek came up behind me and slyly put his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder. His breath was warm on my skin as he pressed his lips to my neck. I tried not to shiver at his touch, but it was nearly impossible. "When do you want to tell them?" He asked me quietly.

"Tell them what?" I asked. I could feel my muscles stiffen a little bit. He didn't want us to tell his family that we'd mutualized, did he? They could see that for themselves if they could see our tattoos. I just didn't want to go in front of his family and tell them that we'd done that. From the way he'd described it to me, it had seemed more like something that was private and in between the two of us.

"That we're getting married. We are, aren't we?" He asked, doubt coloring his voice.

I turned to face him. I stood on my tiptoes to put my arms around his neck, fingers playing with his hair. It put our faces only inches apart. "Of course we're getting married," I whispered to him. The words sent a thrill through me, and I couldn't help but smile widely. "I already said yes, didn't I?"

Derek leaned forward and kissed my jaw, slowly traveling up to my lips. He'd just touched the corner of my mouth when my phone went off, scaring both of us apart. I laughed nervously, pecked a kiss on his cheek, which was in need of being shaved, and went to check my phone. I couldn't help but frown to myself – my mom was wondering why I hadn't talked to her outside of my shifts at work. She wanted me to come and have dinner with her; without Derek, so we could have some girl time, as she put it. I quickly shot off a text message saying that I had brunch with Derek's family, but that I'd probably be free for dinner.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked as he tossed his shirt into the nearby hamper.

"What am I going to tell my mom?" I asked him quietly. "I mean, your parents will be happy, I know. But they all expected it sooner or later. In fact, they probably bet on sooner." I told him. "But my parents are a different story. They won't…." I paused. "I don't know if they'll let me marry you with a clear conscience."

Derek sighed and sat on the end of the bed, beckoning me forward. I went and sat next to him, drawing my knees up to my chest. He wrapped his arm around me and kissed my temple. "Honestly, it's up to you, Emily. You can tell them, or you… well, you don't have to if you don't want to. We can have an Ace wedding at my uncle's, and then we can tell your parents that we eloped at the justice of the peace and that the reception is at my uncle's house. Or you can invite them to a non-conventional Ace wedding." He paused and looked at me. "We don't have to have an Ace wedding if you don't want one, actually. We can go the human route, too." He offered.

I shook my head. "I'm an Ace now. Besides, how long do you think I could keep a white dress white?" I asked, adding in a slightly forced grin. "An Ace wedding it is," I told him. I could already feel the stress of it all, and I hadn't even been engaged for twenty-four hours, much less _twelve_ hours.

"Hey," he murmured in my ear, "we don't have to talk about this right now if you don't want to." He rubbed my back, right in between my shoulder blades, his knuckles running over the bumps in my spine. "In fact, we really can go elope if you want."

I laughed. I'd already had a vision of me in a red dress, anyway. "No, I really do want an Ace wedding. I think… I think it might be best if we just tell my parents that we eloped, though. They wouldn't get an Ace wedding, and then the thought of them being clueless while everyone else is in on the secret…." I shook my head. "It would be better if they just came to the reception afterwards," I told him.

Derek tilted my chin up with two fingers. "Baby," he whispered, "I never wanted you to have to make these kinds of decisions. I wish… I wish there was some way for us to tell them. But it seems like trouble usually follows when humans know. It's technically against our laws." He said. He let out another heavy sigh and shook his head, his dark hair falling into his eyes. I reached over and brushed it away, so I could see the green hazel lagoons that had become a safe haven for me.

"I know. I wish we could tell them, too. I wish I could tell her that even though her relationship with my dad didn't work out that mine isn't going to be forever. I wish I could tell her that I could compel people and that I've got my hearing back. I really, really wish I could tell her that I'm getting married." I put out my left hand, wiggling my fingers, imagining a ring on the fourth one. Derek didn't have a ring for me – they were private, something that we bought for each other and gave to the other after the wedding. Derek had told me that they weren't really something to be paraded around.

Derek reached out and weaved his fingers through mine, drawing my hand towards his chest. He briefly kissed my knuckles and looked up into my eyes. "I know. Sometimes, I wish things were different."

"I don't," I said with sudden conviction. "I can't imagine not finding you. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if we'd never imprinted," I told him. "When Tory questioned me, I told her that I couldn't remember what it was like to live without you. And it's true. There was like, nothing to me."

"Not true," he said pointedly.

I rolled my eyes, unable to hide a small smile. "So you think. But you, sir, are biased."

"So what if I am?" He teased.

I glanced over his shoulder at the clock on the bedside table. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his cheek. "We better get ready to go to your grandma's. I promise we can fight later."

He just laughed and nudged me. I skipped over to the dresser and withdrew a clean set of clothes. I wanted to look pretty. I figured that this would be the time when we announced to his family that we were set to be engaged. I wanted to look like I deserved him, despite the fact that Derek swore up and down that he was the one that wasn't good enough for me.

I wanted to be someone that they would be happy to call Mrs. Stanton.

# # #

"I'm nervous," I announced as Derek came around the front of the car and opened my door for me. I took a hold of his hand to step out, smoothing out the folds in my skirt. I'd thought that it might be better to dress up a little bit, despite the fact that Victoria was going in her jeans and button-up. If she was going casual, it was probably safe to assume that _everyone_ was going to be casual. They might even be wearing Bermuda shorts, for God's sake.

He just cocked a grin. "Don't be. You've already met them."

"Yeah, but they don't know that we're engaged." I said. I'd realized on the ride over that I used that word – along with wedding – way too much, both out loud and in my mind. Maybe I just couldn't get over it. I mean, it was a big step for anybody, even if it was expected.

"They knew we would be at some point from the moment I brought you over." He said, closing the Trans Am door behind me. "They just didn't know the timing," he continued, motioning for me to walk in front of him. I waited until he was at my side before slipping my hand into his, letting him lead me up the steps. Rose and Barry's house was smaller and more low-key than Derek's, but it was still quaint. It made me think of one of those comfy Dutch cottages. Ivy grew up the walls, and there were at least five rose bushes lining the front walk. They were so big that I had a hard time telling which was which.

Derek didn't pause to knock at the door; he just opened it up and walked inside. I trailed behind him, my heart beating out a nervous pattern. I'd already met Rose and Barry, and the rest of Derek's immediate family had showed up moments before we did. There were cousins and aunts and uncles that I'd met briefly. But then again, there were people that I didn't recognize in the least. Derek had told me that Aces had big families, and he wasn't lying. The Stanton family was _huge_. But at least they didn't flood to me like I was the new girl. I'd been around for roughly a month, after all.

"There you are," Victoria said, smiling at us. "We were wondering if you two had gotten lost." She teased. Her easygoing tone seemed to make me relax a little more. Derek squeezed my hand and smiled widely at his family, greeting members that he didn't see all that often. They all treated me politely, like I was part of the family and not a stranger that had been brought into the house. And nobody seemed to notice my new family tattoo, since they were too busy shaking my hand and marveling over the fact that a once completely deaf girl had been healed by her ascended significant's touch.

Derek joked with his cousins while I headed to the kitchen, where all of the women had gathered. I offered my help and was set to working on peeling potatoes with Madison. I picked up a knife and set to work skinning one, both of us leaning over the trash sink.

"You overwhelmed yet?" She asked conversationally, shooting me a teasing smile.

"Definitely," I replied, shaking a clingy potato skin into the sink. "You guys have the biggest family I've ever _seen_." I told her.

"It's your family now too, you know," she said, her eyes focused on the job at hand. She glanced up at me briefly and said, "You've been family since the very moment you imprinted with Derek. That's what's so great about Aces, I think. They don't have any qualms about including you. Like my friend, Diana, her family _hates_ her boyfriend. Says he's scum, or something like that. It puts Diana right in the middle, 'cause she really does like him, but she hates fighting with her parents." She reached past me for another potato. "Aces would never do that."

"Well," I said, "you have a guarantee that the new kid is perfect for your loved one. It makes it kind of impossible to hate them."

Madison shook her head. "It doesn't mean we don't absolutely hate them. It means we tolerate them. Sometimes there are people in your family that you can't stand, and having another copy of them is completely obnoxious." I bit down on my lip. What if there were people that didn't like Derek, so they didn't like me by default? Madison, as if sensing my sudden worry, cleared her throat and added, "But not you. You're like, the nicest person I've ever met, you know that?"

I rolled my eyes and made a joke out of it, so she didn't think that she'd worried me all that much. "Nice save."

She shrugged. "Eh, I try." She laughed and took a hold of the bowl – it was filled to the brim – to her mother. Victoria dumped it into a pot of boiling water. Derek's grandma Rose took a hold of my arm, her fingers hiding my tattoo, as she directed me to help Carissa with the fruit salad. She patted my hand sweetly as she did so before running off to do something else. For a woman that was in her late seventies, she had an extremely high range of motion. She didn't seem to have joints bothering her or be out of breath in the least.

I sidled up to Carissa and gave her a smile. "What do you need me to do?" I asked. I looked over the arrangements of fruits that she had laid out in front of her. I didn't want to necessarily meet her gaze. In all honesty, Carissa sort of scared me. Out of all of the family members, she was the only one that had seemed to be social but hadn't tried to talk to me at all. I rarely saw her when I was at the house – only at dinner – where I sat at one end of the table, sandwiched between Derek and Madison, while she sat at the other.

"Could you cut the tops off these strawberries? And then we'll cut them in half," she said, expertly sliding a knife along an apple. I didn't know if that made me admire her cooking skills or if it made me fear her all the more.

"Sure," I said, reaching for a strawberry and one of the glinting silver knives on the counter.

My fingers had just wrapped around the handle of the knife when she reached out and took a hold of my wrist. Her grip wasn't as soft as her grandmother's had been, but it wasn't too hard, either. "What is that?" She asked, yanking my arm across me and bringing it closer to her face.

"Um," I started, glancing over my shoulder. The rest of the women in the kitchen had stopped suddenly, all of them looking at me. Carissa was still gripping my wrist. I could feel my blush starting as I tried to gently pull my arm away from her. "My, um," I struggled to think of what to call it. I didn't want to say _mutualizing_ out loud, and I wasn't sure if it was called a family tattoo. Derek had once referred to his as his family crest….

Madison was the only one to move. She crowded it on my other side and wrenched my arm away from her sister. Her eyes got to be the size of disks as she looked down at the half of flame with Derek's name skirting the outside. "You two _mutualized_?" She hooted.

I yanked my arm away from her hard, pressing the inside of my wrist. Before I could say anything, Victoria was at my side, giving Madison a slight shove away from me. She could tell that I was instantly uncomfortable. Mutualizing had just been something so… intimate. I didn't like Madison calling it out to all of the women in the kitchen, much less all of the men out in the living room, if they could hear. I would put money down that a bunch of the wives in here were relaying the message to their significants, anyway. It wasn't like I could keep it a secret, but still.

Victoria just gave me a warm smile that said she couldn't be happier, and then she told Carissa to move over and do something different. She took up her eldest daughter's job, chopping up bits of pears and tossing the easily into the huge salad bowl in front of us. "Don't worry about them," she said. As she worked, I took a glance at her wrist. Robert's name followed the wavering line of the flame. She and all of the other imprinted soul mates in here had mutualized, I was sure. They knew what it was like. They knew that it was nothing to be ashamed of. "The two of them have no idea what it's like. One day, they will, though."

I looked over at her. Victoria was focused on the fruits in front of her, but I could hear it in the tone of her voice. It was hope and worry mixed into one. She couldn't wait until her daughters found their soul mates because she wanted them to experience true love, but there was a part of her that didn't want to see them go. If Madison or Carissa imprinted tomorrow, they would pack up their bags and leave. It was the way of the Aces.

And then, there was a little bit that said she was worried that they never would imprint, that even though Derek and I did that we'd be the only ones. She hoped it wasn't true. I hoped it wasn't true, too.

I just nodded in reply, since I couldn't think of anything to say.

# # #

Derek nudged my foot with his. I glanced over at him, trying to keep my face straight. It was a game that we had started with ourselves – we would both tease the other incessantly, and the first to break and let the rest of the family know that we were talking to each other lost. I was determined to win. But right at that moment, I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Hah! I win!" He announced. He'd forgotten to say it mentally, though, so conversation on our end of the table stopped completely while they all looked at him.

I nudged him in the ribs. _I think that means I win._

He grinned down at me a little ruefully. _I let you win._

_Sure you did._ I teased, spearing a piece of sliced banana off the corner of my plate. I tried to pay attention to Derek's cousin, a girl who was just a few months younger than Derek. She was talking easily about her school. She sounded like a female version of Zach. She was using big words and talked in an air that made her seem like she was a little better than the rest of us. I suddenly knew what Madison meant when she said some of the family was obnoxious.

And I couldn't help but notice that while the medical student, Theresa, talked, everyone was going in between me and Derek and her. There was a piece of me that thought that they found Derek and me more interesting than engineering and mathematical terminology. I would have found another girl and her significant more interesting than Theresa's future job at Virtuous Motors, anyway. But what they were more interested in, I found out, was the family tattoo on my wrist.

Derek nudged me. He could tell that I was self-conscious of the way everyone was looking at me. And his way to solve it was to make it obvious how much he cared about me. It started with a hand on my leg under the dinner table to him scooting his chair closer to me. Now that we'd finished our meal and were waiting until everyone else was ready for dessert, his fingers had woven with mine on top of the table, his thumb smoothing over the back of my hand. Now, as Theresa continued to speak, he leaned forward and whispered in my ear, "Do you want to tell them about us getting engaged?"

A shiver went down my spine. I turned to look at him and replied, _We'll have to tell them sometime, won't we?_

Derek just flashed a grin. He was happy about this. He wanted everyone to know that not only were we imprinted, a mutualized couple, but he wanted everyone to know that he'd asked me to marry him and I'd agreed.

Derek cleared his throat and said loudly, cutting off his cousin, "Emily and I are engaged." I threw him a glare. I'd figured that he'd want to say it formally, or something. Like, tapping on his water glass with his fork and saying something along of the lines of "We have something that we want to tell you." Theresa stopped, her mouth hanging open either because Derek had cut her off or she was appalled by the news. Madison, sitting across from me and next to Theresa looked at me open-mouthed, like she couldn't believe that I didn't tell her right away. Victoria, sitting at the end of the table, froze for a moment just like everyone else. And then she jumped up and skirted around the table, coming to hug both of us tightly.

"I knew you were hiding something from me," she accused Derek. She reached out and pulled me into her, squeezing me so tight I thought that I was going to pop. "Oh, Emily, you know what this means, don't you?" She didn't even give me a moment to answer before she squealed, like an ecstatic young girl, "We get to plan a wedding!"

**I'm working to finish this story – I have something special planned for you guys the **_**moment**_** the last chapter of Derek and Emily's story is posted. I'm excited for it, so hopefully it will fuel my desire to finish this (it would be the first finished multi-chaptered FanFiction of mine.)**

**Please forgive any spelling/grammatical errors, since I've decided to upload without rereading, which isn't that uncommon. I'm just so excited for you guys to read this!**

**Thank you so much for reading and for sticking with it throughout the last twenty-two chapters. Please take a moment to leave me a review. Thanks! Peace (:**


	23. Secrets Revealed

**BreeTico – A little too blunt at times, don't you agree? :P**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_23: Secrets Revealed_

"Mom?" I called out as I stepped inside the house. I'd stood on my old front porch for a while, trying to decide one whether or not I should just go in or if I should knock first. It reminded me of watching Derek just walk into his grandparents' house without so much as a bat of an eyelash. It should be the same for me. Heck, some of my belongings were still here in the upstairs bedroom, after all. I'd finally decided to use the key still around my key ring – it now had Derek's house key attached to it, a physical reminder that this wasn't my home anymore.

"Mom?" I tried again, stepping into the living room. I looked up the stairs but didn't see her at the top, so I ventured into the kitchen.

"Emily!" She exclaimed from the other room. I barely managed to keep myself from calling back a reply. I couldn't see her, so there would be no way to explain away how I'd known she said my name. Unless I wanted to come clean about having my hearing returned, that is. I thought hard about how to school my face into a neutral expression. I was pretty sure that I managed it right when she came around the corner. She had a tube of lip gloss in hand. "Hi, honey!"

"Hi," I said back with a smile. I didn't know what it was, but I expected her to look different. She'd cut back on my hours when it came to the music shop. I went from seeing her every day, all day, to seeing her every now and then. It was weird. She looked the same with her dark hair and bright blue eyes. She even looked like she'd dressed up a little bit, wearing a dress that made her look ten years younger and heels that made her several inches taller.

She came forward and gave me a warm hug, pecking a kiss on my cheek. When she pulled back, she was grinning like I'd just told her wonderful news. She quickly signed to me, her lips pressed into a thin line as she grinned a little ruefully. "I forgot to text you, honey." Her fingers moved a little faster, and she signed out, "I meant to, I really did, but I lost track of time and…." She paused, her smile breaking out even wider. "Do you remember that man across the street, the one who owns the coffee shop that Xavier always goes to?" She asked.

I nodded. "The one with blonde hair?" I asked. He was about my mom's age, maybe a few years older, but nowhere close to fifty. He looked like the nerdy type of guy, sort of like Xavier. In any case, he was a far cry from my dad. "Yeah. What about him?"

"Remember how I said that I went to high school with him? I mean, he was a senior when I was a sophomore, so I didn't know him very long, but I do remember him. He was class president," she informed me. Her eyes twinkled as she talked about him and her high school years, when she and my father had been the it couple. "Well, he came by the shop today. And he asked me if I'd be interested in dinner tonight. _Dinner_!" She exclaimed.

"What happened to Cal?" I asked. I realized that I hadn't heard anything about him in a while. He and my mom were never very close, though.

"We decided to go our separate ways. He got a job offer in Cleveland that he just couldn't turn down, and I wanted to stay here. Besides that, we were drifting apart. I thought I texted you to let you know. But it wasn't anything really big. Cal and I are still good friends." She paused, and then added, "Jimmy's just a friend right now, but what if it turns into something more?" I grinned back, but I knew it was completely fake. I wanted to be happy for my mom, being asked out on a date. She had never been this happy about a date with Cal. They were an awkward couple, really. Cal had sort of been my mom's rebound from my dad. But I couldn't help but feel a pain that almost ripped through me. It was like what I'd felt when my parents told me that they were getting a divorce. Although the two of them had been separated for years, my dad had never moved on to another person as far as I knew, and my mom had been with Cal, with whom her relationship was more platonic, like mine with Xavier's. And even though I _knew_ my parents weren't getting back together, it still felt like she was betraying my dad. I hadn't felt it with Cal; maybe it was because I knew that it wasn't going to last with him.

I set my purse down on the nearby table. "That's great, mom," I said. "He seems really nice."

"Oh, he is." My mom replied, signing and speaking at the same time. She added, "But he won't be here for another thirty minutes or so, so you should sit down. I feel like I haven't seen you in a long time." She turned her back and shuffled off to the kitchen. I started to follow her before realizing that she'd only gone in there to grab a handful of candy from the jar she kept in the center of our dining room table. "Jimmy's always been a nice guy, even when we were in high school. He spent his study period _and_ his free period in the computer science class. That's how I met him. You know how I am with computers."

I just nodded. My mom was impaired when it came to technology, anything except for her bubble shooting game that she loved so much. It was a miracle that she managed to text, but she did it because it was the only way to contact me when I wasn't in the same place as her. Although it had been rare that we were ever that far away from each other, it had certainly been helpful. Mom grinned at me and dropped the candy into my hand. I just smiled back. Whatever I was feeling deep inside was weird and pointless, and I hated feeling it.

I leaned back in my seat and unwrapped one of the pieces. It was a miniature piece of chocolate, my favorite kind. I popped it into my mouth as my mom started talking about all of the ways she'd had trouble with the computer when she was a sophomore and Jimmy had helped her. Jimmy, she said, had never acted like she was a dumb bimbo, because he was just that nice.

Discomfort bubbled inside me. I had never sat down with anyone and talked about boys or relationships. Before I had my accident in sixth grade and I was still friends with Bailey, we'd talk about what boys we thought were cute, but that was the extent of our interest in them. At that age, we'd dreamed of dating the guys that graced magazine covers and sung our favorite songs. It was funny, looking back, that Bailey knew she had no intention of dating anyone (or, at least, she wasn't supposed to.)

With one chocolate completely melted and gone, I reached for the next piece in the pile sitting on the coffee table. Unwrapping it, I tossed the wrapper on the counter as my mom continued to talk. She wasn't even paying attention to see if I was watching her. She was _that_ into this Jimmy. My heart was pounding at the idea of my mom finding someone else, loving someone else, marrying someone else and moving on with her life. It wasn't an altogether bad thing it was just… not what I expected.

In my purse, across the room, my phone started ringing. I'd forgotten to turn it back down to vibrate. Before I could stop myself, I stopped watching my mom's hands as she spoke and instead turned to look at my purse. In my head, I was already expecting it to be Derek. And with that thought floating through my head, I stood up and headed towards my purse.

"Emily?" My mom asked from behind me.

"Yeah, hold on," I replied, picking up my purse. I dug for my phone, thinking that there was no good reason for all the crap I had to be in my bag, when I realized what exactly I'd done. I froze, my phone and the high probability of Derek calling no longer the first thing in my head. My heart started to pound a little harder as I turned around and looked at my mom.

She was staring at me with her eyes as wide as dinner plates. She looked like she'd just seen a ghost. I bit down on my lip, and she said, slowly, "You heard that?"

"Um," I started. "Yeah, yeah I did." I looked down at my phone, squinting to see the name. It was Derek. He was probably feeling my internal discomfort with the fact of my mom dating, and he'd called me. Since I didn't answer his call (really, he should have known better) he was probably panicking. I quickly pulled it out and opened a new text message, sending off a quick note saying that I was okay. I added that I accidentally let my mom know about my hearing.

"Emily!" She exclaimed, jumping up. She came forward, moving incredibly fast in her high heels, and wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. It nearly knocked my cell phone out of my hands. She pulled back and exclaimed, "Oh, my God! It's a _miracle_! All those doctors said that you would never be able to hear again!" She brushed my hair behind my ear and peered at it, as if she was going to see something that would tell her that my hearing had returned. She knew as well as I did that all of the damage had been internal. "What's it like?" She whispered.

My gaze met hers. Her bright blue lantern eyes, as my dad had once referred to them, were eerily bright with unshed tears. "Don't cry," I said suddenly, "you'll ruin your makeup and make Jimmy wait." She gave a giggly laugh that was thick with tears. It made _me_ start to tear up. I ran my fingers under my eyes. "It's… weird. I didn't even realize it until my cell phone rang." The lie was surprisingly smooth in such an emotional moment.

Around her smiles, I could see the question forming deep in her eyes; a crease deepening in between her eyebrows. "Why was your cell phone off vibrate, anyway?" She asked.

Once again, the lie was easy, falling off my lips. "It must have accidentally hit the volume button in my purse or something." I motioned to the bag. "There's so much stuff in there."

My mom grinned. Whenever I was younger, I always used to complain that I could never find her packet of spearmint gum in her purse around all of the lip gloss, hand sanitizer, and other useless items that she had stockpiled in there. "Never mind that," she said, reaching for her own purse. She withdrew her own phone and said, "We've just _got_ to call Dr. Baird! When we first went to see him, he said that the chances of you regaining your hearing were slim to none. Think about what he'll say when I tell him that you beat all the odds! We'll have to make you and appointment and everything." As she continued to speak, she was already looking up Dr. Baird's number. A part of me wanted to reach out and tell her not to bother, but it would be strange if I said something like that. I needed to be just as surprised as she was.

"What about your date with Jimmy?" I asked.

She waved me away, too excited about the fact that my hearing had returned to that she had all but forgotten about Jimmy. At least I knew that when it came down to it, she would always choose me over someone else. "Hello, yes? Dr. Baird? I'm so sorry to call you out of the office." She said. I turned my back on her and slipped to the back door. I let myself out and went to sit on the edge of the back deck. Derek's number was my speed dial number two. I wasn't exactly sure when his number had replaced my mother's in speed dial hierarchy, but it had.

I put the phone to my ear and rested my chin on my hands. I waited impatiently for the ring. It went on for about a minute before I heard, "Emily?"

"Derek," I breathed a sigh of relief. Looking over my shoulder at the closed back door, I hurriedly whispered, "My phone was turned up, and I forgot that I wasn't supposed to hear it and she's calling Dr. Baird now." I explained in a rush.

I didn't know if I'd spoken too fast, but he seemed not to have any trouble figuring out what I was saying. I didn't know if he was just that aware of the fact that his fiancée (the word gave me shivers) had a bad habit of talking in a rush when she nervous, or if he really was just that attuned to me. I knew that it was possible to read each other over distances, and he could easily get a lock on me. There were moments when he'd checked up on me.

"It's okay, baby," he said calmly. "It was going to have to come out eventually, right? I mean, did you intend to pretend to be deaf for the rest of your life?"

He already knew the answer to that. I glanced down at the mutualizing tattoo on my wrist. It was still there, still beautiful. There were times when I thought that I was going to look down on it and it would be a smudge, like magic marker that had started to wash off. "No," I whispered. "I just… I wanted to plan it out, you know. I didn't want to be literally _surprised_ like that."

Derek gave a low chuckle that, despite our physical distance, warmed me to my heart. "It'll be okay. Let her call the doctor. The miracle of it all will wear off," he said in a soothing voice. I took a deep breath and let a tiny grin touch my lips. Derek always knew what to say to make me feel better. "But that's not why your heart rate suddenly picked up, was it?"

Oh, yeah. Jimmy. "Sorry," I said. I glanced over my shoulder again. I didn't know how long my mom would be on the phone with Dr. Baird. I didn't want her to come looking for me and find me having a supernatural conversation with Derek. I already felt like I was lying to her enough. "When I got over here, my mom told me that she had a date with the guy that owns the coffee shop down the street from her store." I explained. "I don't really know why I got all freaked out about it."

In my mind's eye, I could practically see Derek lean back in whatever chair he was sitting in. He was supposed to be at Johnny and PJ's, practicing once again for their set, which was in a few hours. We'd worked it out so that after brunch with his family, I could go to dinner with my mom, and then he'd pick me up on the way to the band's venue before they played. I was throwing a kink in the plan, but I honestly didn't feel too bad about it. I _did_ want to spend time with my mom, but Derek was more pressing in my mind. He would always come first for me.

"Is that a bad thing?" He asked.

"No," I said with sudden conviction. "No, it's not bad at all. It was just… unexpected."

"I wish I could say that I understood it completely and totally, but I get it to an extent. I can feel all of your emotions, remember?" He asked. He must have been in a place that he deemed safe to talk about our supernatural Ace relationship. Maybe he was even sitting out on Johnny and PJ's back porch.

"You sure know how to woo a girl," I said offhandedly.

"It's in the job description," he answered without missing a beat. I stifled a laugh and glanced over my shoulder for the third time.

"I don't know how long she'll be on the phone." I told him.

"Do you need me to come pick you up? You know I don't mind spending time with you," his voice was teasing, but I knew he was being serious. If anything, it started to hurt us to be apart from each other. My mom might be worried about the "clingy" attachment Derek and I had to each other, but it was where both of us felt safest.

"Probably," I admitted. "Tell Johnny, PJ, and Tank that I'm sorry." I told him. I loved having him by me, and I knew that he loved having me by him. But I was starting to think that his friends were worried that they were never going to see him without me glued to his side ever again. I'd heard Tank make a side comment to his companion, or whatever that girl was called, after he'd had a few to drink. He'd murmured to her, not very quietly, that Derek was getting "wifed up." At the time, he had no idea how true that was. Looking down at my left hand, I wiggled my fingers, trying to imagine what kind of ring Derek would buy me. I wondered what it would feel like on my fourth finger.

"They won't complain," he replied. "Just give me a call, and I'll be right over."

"Thanks," I said. "I love you."

"I love you, too, sweetheart."

We hung up and I clambered to my feet. I stopped outside the back door and peered in. My mom was standing at the month-by-month calendar she had hung up on the kitchen wall. I could just barely see her as she penciled in my appointment with Dr. Baird. Before my accident, I'd been scared to death of doctors. After, I'd gotten used to it. But it had been years, and the familiar anxiety settled deep in my stomach. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself so I didn't alert Derek, and gently twisted the doorknob.

"Thank you so much, Dr. Baird." My mom said. She drew the phone away from her ear and turned to grin at me. "He fit you in for an appointment tomorrow afternoon. I'll cancel your shift for tomorrow; Debbie can take over for me, and Xavier will be there."

"Who's Debbie?" I asked.

"Hmm?" My mom glanced at me and then shrugged. "Oh, she's this friend of Xavier's that I hired. Both he and Jimmy recommended her. She works at the coffee shop the other half of the time. Jimmy says she's been a seasonal employee for a couple of years now. Her mom's gotten sick, and Debbie's hoping to earn some extra cash for the doctor's bills." Mom explained. She didn't seem bothered by the fact that she'd, in a way, hired my replacement.

My mind was just filling with unwanted dread.

"I hope tomorrow afternoon's okay with you. Silly me, I was so excited that I forgot to ask." She said. She motioned for me to take my seat again. "I'm still so excited about the fact that your hearing has _returned_. It's just a miracle! I don't know what to say."

"It's pretty shocking," I replied, trying to keep up the enthusiasm in my voice. My mom wasn't lacking in any at all, and I didn't want to seem that I _wasn't_ excited that my hearing "miraculously" returned. I was just… used to it by now. I was already back to taking it for granted.

"Okay, okay," she said, collapsing into her chair. She reached for one of the chocolates she'd previously bought me. "Let's pick up right where we left off, okay? Oh, this is so exciting!" I grinned. I wished she would just calm down. I'd been ecstatic when I realized that Derek had returned my hearing to me, but it was sort of hoped. I had an idea that his healing touch would fix whatever was internally wrong with my ears. What had been more exciting at the time was our ascension. And at that time, I'd been borderline exhausted, so it had failed to make that big of an impression on me. My mom, though, was a different story. "How are Derek and his family? Is everything going okay there?"

"It's great, mom." I said. A sudden smile burst out on my face. I was thinking about the way Derek had gotten down on one knee and asked me to marry him, right after showing me my name in beautiful script over his chest. I wondered what my mom would think about the tattoo. I wasn't going to tell her about the proposal; we'd decided that we were going to have an Ace wedding, and then we were going to invite her to the reception. Derek's family was going to have to pretend that they were just as surprised but our "elopement" as my parents were going to be. I decided not to say anything about the tattoo just yet, in case she thought that it was weirdly obsessive or something. "I really do like him. In fact, mom, I love him."

Mom grinned. Her eyes were tearing up again. I reached behind me and grabbed a tissue out of the box, handing it to her. She laughed shakily and dabbed at her eyes. "You're just growing up so fast, honey," she said. "Your hearing is back, and you love someone…."

Just as she was saying the words, the doorbell rang. My mom looked up sharply and said, "Oh, that must be Jimmy. I forgot he was coming." She climbed to her feet and balled up the tissue, tossing it in the nearby trashcan on the way to the door. I heard her undo the locks and then she exclaimed, "Hi, Jimmy!"

Even though I was still a little uncomfortable at the prospect of my mother dating, I couldn't help but give her back a slight smile. My mom sounded just excited to see Jimmy as she was to find out that my hearing had returned. With the grin still on my lips, I dialed Derek's number.

# # #

"I've got an appointment with Dr. Baird tomorrow," I said as I slid into the passenger seat. I immediately clasped on to Derek's hand. His warmth rushed through me, and I leaned back against the seat. "We're not all that different from regular people, are we?" I asked. One of my biggest fears was that I was going to go see Dr. Baird and he would somehow find out that I wasn't as human as he thought I was. I was an Ace, now. Aces didn't need doctors, since their significant could heal them.

"No, he shouldn't notice at all. All of us had to go to doctors before we found our significant," he said. "You should be fine." He didn't say it out loud, and I didn't know if he meant for me to hear it in his mental tirade either, but I heard "_and if he does notice something, you can use your ability to persuade him that it's nothing at all_." I gave him a sharp look. He just shrugged. "I'm sorry, Emily, but you were given your ability for a reason."

"I know," I sighed. "But that doesn't mean that I want to use it against people that are only trying to help me," I glanced out the window, where my mom was being let into Jimmy's car. He was holding open the door. He even gave me a short salute, and I forced a smile back at him. "I don't want to be the type of person that only looks out for herself. I don't want to make my mom or anyone else I care about do something they don't want to do."

"You won't," Derek said confidently. "Your heart is too pure for that. Remember, I've seen the deepest recesses of your mind." He winked, and I couldn't help but give a little tiny laugh at that. "You wouldn't do a single thing to hurt anyone. I know you'll only use your ability when you need it." I nodded, thankful that he was able to make me feel better with just a few words.

I sighed, glanced at the clock, and said, "We've got to hurry up. You've still got to practice one last time before your set. And warm up and stuff, right?"

"There's plenty of time," he said. But as he said it he put the car in drive, motioned to my mother and Jimmy out my window, and drove off.

**Short chapter. Sorry I haven't been updating lately, and I'll try to update more often. I'm going off on a vacation for the holidays in the next week and won't be back for another one, so hopefully I can get something out in the next few days for you guys. If not, you'll just have to wait. So sorry.**

**Please excuse any mistakes. As you guys know by now, I'm a lazy writer. Editing has never really been my forte when it comes to my own work.**

**Leave me a review, and check back! Thanks. Peace (:**


	24. No Regrets

**Guest – (1) Yes, I'm going to write more. I intend to finish this and several others (most of them Significance) and then I'm already planning to upload more. I have the starting chapters written for them and everything! (2) Getting to it, I promise! (;**

**Seriously guys, I'm really sorry about the ridiculous break between updates. School started to overwhelm me, I guess. But with summer coming, expect to see me around a lot more! (:**

_24: No Regrets_

When Derek and I pulled up in the back alley reserved for band members, Tank was sitting on an old, dusty amp that was holding the back door open. He was holding a drink between his fingers. "Well, look who decided to show up." His words could've been harsh, but his smile and tone said otherwise. Still, I felt apologetic as I got out of the car.

"Sorry, Tank," I said. "I was supposed to have dinner with my mom, but there was a change of plans. I don't have a car." Even to me, my explanation sounded lame. What nineteen-year-old doesn't have a car? Or her driver's license, for that matter?

Tank seemed appeased by the apology and swept a hand towards the inside. It was still quiet because it hadn't opened yet, though in a few hours it would be booming with music and filled to the brim with bodies. "The others are inside," he said. "PJ and Johnny are arguing again about that extra song Johnny wanted for the encore," he smirked, "if we get one."

"You'll get one," I said. "You guys are great. I mean, I haven't listened to much music in the past few years…." I added as I pointed to one of my ears. Tank seemed to think it was funny. He chortled out a deep laugh and smiled at me, showing off his crooked front teeth.

"Get in there, Miss Emily," he said. Derek just smiled at him and pulled me into the club.

I'd never been backstage before. For some reason, I thought it was going to be more than it was, like there was going to be gold stars on the doors and security roaming around with ear pieces and dark sunglasses and Tasers strapped to their hips. Instead, it was painted black, though the walls were peeling, and the security was made up of the regular bouncers, who wore ear pieces attached to your average walkie-talkie, sans the sunglasses. They nodded to Derek as he passed and viewed me, their eyes moving from my face to my feet and back, as my significant led me to one of a handful of rooms.

The inside was hideously green. Derek had said that bands were supposed to wait in the green rooms, but I thought that was just a term. I'd imagined some sort of sitting room that reminded me of a swanky hotel lobby, but instead it looked like we had been shoved into an avocado. Green floor, green walls, and brown furniture that had seen its better days.

Tory was sitting on the counter by a sink stained with hard water marks. Her feet moved back and forth as she played with the top of her water bottle. Johnny straddled one of the chairs, using the back as an arm rest, as he and PJ argued over a list they had spread out on the table. Tory waved, and Derek went to grab the two of us something to drink.

"Hey," Tory said, twisting the cap back onto her bottle. "Welcome to the great backstage, which is a lot suckier than you thought it would be, am I right?" I couldn't help but smile, and she grinned back. "Word of warning, don't sit on the couch, because we have no clue whose been there before, if you catch my drift, and only take drinks from Derek or one of the guys, because the other band they've got playing tonight is an up-and-coming collection of pervy adolescents."

Derek slid up next to me, pressing a cold water bottle into my hand. "You better not be talking about me," he teased as his fingers went to the back of my neck. They were cold to the touch, but the massage and the essence of him released all of the tension that had built up.

Tory just grinned. "I could be," she joked. "But no. Did you see the playing order? They've got those idiot Steel Bandits opening for you guys. I can't _stand_ them. Their bassist tried to pick a fight with Johnny last time they were in the same building. I already told Tank that he has to be ready to leap over the drums to stop him from pummeling the crap out of that kid. You too, Der," she said, looking pointedly at him.

Derek moved his finger in an X over his chest, where the tattoo of my name happened to be. "Cross my heart," he promised, though the corner of his mouth twitched up in a smile. He must've picked up on my thoughts, because he whispered in my mind, _my heart belongs to you_.

I leaned into him, glancing up into his eyes. I didn't think I would ever get over their color. Or the way they could take my breath away. _And mine belongs to you_. Deep down inside, I remembered a time when actors had murmured that to each other in romantic comedies, and I'd always scoffed even though it wasn't supposed to be funny. It was just so cheesy. But apparently, falling in love made you exceptionally lame.

"Do you realize you guys do that a lot?" Tory asked suddenly. Our eyes tore away from each other and focused on her. "I mean, the staring into each other's eyes thing? All we need is a rainstorm and an emotional musical score, and bam! We've got a scene from every chick flick in existence."

"Gee, thanks." I said, trying to sound as sarcastic as possible. The last thing we wanted was for her to actually think that she was on to something. Derek said that regular people weren't supposed to know about the Aces, their imprints, or their abilities.

"You two are adorable." She replied. "It's almost so sweet it's sick."

"Really, Tory," Derek cut in, "I distinctly remembered when you and Johnny started dating, and whenever we had a break the two of you were glued to a couch, tongues down each other's throats. Tell me _that_ wasn't sick."

I elbowed Derek at the same time she punched him in the arm. "Hey, be nice. And don't tell me you two haven't engaged in a make-out session or two." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. I blushed at the thought. Derek and I were more in tune than she would ever know, and because of that, every single touch was magnified. For a moment, I actually felt sorry for her. Tory would never know what it was like to be completely and totally connected to her soul mate. Even if Johnny was her other half, neither of them were Aces, so they wouldn't experience the fire and ice that came with the union.

Derek's fingers weaved with mine, and he squeezed my hand once. _Maybe there's a reason that not everyone can feel it the way we do. I've heard that there are people with imprints that find it too much to handle. I've never met someone like that myself, but maybe it's possible. Do you really think Tory and Johnny could handle the emotions? You didn't see them sucking each other's faces, and that's without the need I feel for you._

He had a point. I smiled at Tory, trying to make it look like I was daydreaming about Derek instead of having a conversation about the weaknesses and strengths in others. She grinned back, spun her almost empty water bottle on the counter, and hopped off. "I'm off to the bathroom." She stated out loud. We stepped aside so she could pass, but she didn't move. Our gazes met and she raised her eyebrows pointedly.

I'd never realized how awkward I was without a group of friends to grow up with properly. I got the gist of what she meant fast enough, but there was no escaping the awkward moment as we stood there while I tried to figure it out. Girls always went to the bathroom in packs, for reasons unknown to me. "Right," I said out loud, squeezing Derek's hand before letting it go. Tory looked pleased and started off towards the green room door, and I followed dutifully. I had a feeling that Tory wanted to talk more privately, which was why we were escaping the room and heading towards the bathroom. After pushing that thought to Derek, I closed the door to my mind. If Tory wanted to talk to me without Derek present, then she was going to get just that. I didn't know how long I would manage to keep it a secret from my significant, but she deserved an attempt.

Tory led the way to the bathroom. The girls' door was right next to the boys' which was propped open. She shriveled her nose at it before pushing open the door to our bathroom. I figured that it probably smelled better than the boys' because of the lack of traffic in here. Most of the bands that played here were made up of boys, and so was the staff. The girls' bathroom was nearly impeccably clean next to the boys', which I'd caught a glimpse of as we walked by. And even then, it still managed to feel grimy and dirty, probably due to the yellowed tiles, periwinkle blue stalls, and overall age.

Tory went to the mirror and leaned against the sink, swiping a finger under her eye to collect mascara. "I know we don't know each other that well, but you're the only girl that I know that I could talk to without feeling like a complete idiot." She started. I waited for more, but it was silent for a moment. Finally, I went to the other mirror and gazed at my reflection, smoothing down my hair which actually looked nice for once. I figured it was the ascension, making me look more perfect than I originally was. I just attempted to copy Tory's movements without looking like I was. "I don't have many other girlfriends. They all hate me. I don't really blame them. I'm kind of evil." She grinned to herself and reached into her pocket for a tube of lip gloss.

"Anyway, congratulations, you've been selected as my secret holder. Think you can handle it?" I shrugged and made a noise of affirmation. She fixed her hair. "I think Johnny might propose to me."

"What?" I asked, shocked. Johnny and Tory had seemed like they were made for each other, sure, but they were just… not imprinted. Without an imprint, they seemed so young, though both of them were older than twenty-one. "Why do you think that?"

"He's been really secretive lately. At first, I thought he was cheating. That just seems so wrong, doesn't it? A guy can't do a nice thing without his girlfriend thinking that he's being a total jerk. I already thought he was cheating on me once before, when he planned this whole surprise party for my birthday. He was talking to the guys more, even talking to his _mom_, and he just avoided me. He's not really good at keeping secrets from me. So I thought he was cheating. But he was just throwing me a freaking birthday party. It really made me feel like an idiot, and I swore that I would never do that again. But here I am." She shrugged. "He's doing the same thing he did when he threw the birthday party, except this time, he's acting even weirder. Whenever I drag him to the mall he refuses to look at the jewelry stores when we pass, and he always seems to be looking for something. Or maybe looking for a place to hide something. I'm just guessing, of course, because it's Johnny, and he's never really been the type that sees in black and white. For all I know, it might be a mother's day gift that he's hiding. But that's not what it _feels_ like. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah," I said softly. "It makes a ton of sense. I feel that with Derek sometimes. He's not good at keeping secrets from me, either." I smiled a little at that. I knew almost everything there was to know about him, from the trivial things like his favorite movie and his favorite song to the more important things, like the love he felt for me and the need to protect that he felt for his entire family. I'd seen his memories like they were my own, to the point where I'd felt like I'd grown up with him even though I hadn't had a clue who he was for an entire nineteen years.

"I just… I don't know what I'm going to say."

"How about yes?" I offered. To me, an outsider, it seemed like Tory and Johnny were like me and Derek, without all the supernatural aspects. Two pieces of a whole.

"I don't know. I mean, I'm only twenty-one. My parents didn't even get married until they were nearly thirty."

"I think if you know, you know." I said. Tory turned her gaze to me, and a small piece of me was horrified to see tears in her eyes. She wasn't like Derek; I couldn't read what they were for. "I mean, I haven't known you guys long, but to me, it seems like you two are perfect for each other. You know? Soul mates," I added.

"I don't know if I believe in soul mates," she answered. She titled her head as she looked at herself in the mirror. She gave a saddened laugh and wiped her eyes. "My biggest fear is that I'm jumping into this too soon. I don't want to be a statistic. I don't want to get married at an early age and divorced in a few years because of something stupid. I don't want to move forward only to look back later and think about how stupid I was."

"You're not being stupid," I said. "Stupidity happens when you don't think things through. But it also happens if you overthink things, I think. What about this: if Johnny pulls you onto that stage tonight and proposes, what would you say?"

Tory stayed silent for a moment, staring at herself. "I love him. I think I'd say yes."

I smiled at her reflection in the mirror, and she smiled back. "I think you have your answer. There's always a fear of the unknown. When I was completely deaf, I didn't want to talk to people, because I always felt like they'd look at me funny, or think I was dumb because I couldn't understand them as easily as I used to. But I learned to handle it, because I figured that it was all I was going to get. I accepted it for what it was, and decided that life had a way of moving on. The fact that I got my hearing back was a complete fluke. And now, when I look back, I think about all those things that I missed because I was unsure. I stopped going to public school because I hated the way other kids looked at me, but if I stayed I might've been able to teach them a little sign language and become friends with them even if there was a language barrier. I didn't go to college for the same reason. I worked at my mom's store because I thought it was the only place I could be. Doubting yourself is what makes you regret things."

Tory sighed heavily. "I know. I just don't want to regret Johnny."

"I don't think you will."

Tory turned to me and held out her arms, giving me a hug that could only be rivaled by my mother and Victoria. "Thanks. You should be a counselor or something." She said, laughing through a fresh wave of unshed tears. This time, I could tell that they were from happiness. As she looked in the mirror and dabbed at her eyes, she took a glance at me. "Do you ever think about you and Derek? I mean, you two are joined at the hip."

"Yeah, I have," I said, aware of the smile that took over my lips. Since Derek and I had agreed to "elope," none of our human friends were supposed to know that he'd proposed. Only his family was privy to that information. For one second, I felt a pang of longing. I wanted to tell Tory that Derek had proposed to me and that I'd said yes. I wanted her to fawn over a ring that I didn't have yet, and I wanted her to jump at the chance to help me plan a huge wedding that I didn't really need but wanted to have anyway. I wanted to tell her that even though we didn't know each other well, she deserved to be a bridesmaid. But I couldn't. "I think it just might be in our future."

# # #

The show went without a hitch. Tory and I shared secret smiles all night as we stood on the wings, watching the Triple Threat Touchdowns play their set. Johnny and PJ had finally agreed on an encore list in case it was required, which, of course, it was. People cheered in the room as they played, and I was hopelessly aware of the fact that girls were screaming and reaching for Derek. In reality, the girls reached for any of the guys, but in my mind, it was just Derek they were after. Jealousy, stronger than anything I'd ever felt before, had flared up, but Derek was able to soothe me even as he was on stage.

Tory had her eyes practically glued to Johnny. I didn't know how she managed it, but she didn't seem bothered in the least that they were screaming Johnny's name. I thought about asking her how she managed it, but I didn't want to seem as clingy to her as I had to my mother. We already had enough people thinking that they knew better than we did. So I kept my mouth shut and admired her technique from afar.

At the end of the set, Derek had swept off stage, and I'd stepped up to meet him. He didn't exactly pull me out on stage in front of everyone, but he did make it obvious that there was someone – a girl – in his life as he leaned down to kiss me. It could've just been me, but I was hearing a collective sigh as the girls realized that Derek wasn't on the market anymore. The morning after, I'd logged online and ignored the fact that Xavier hadn't written to me and that Bailey had deleted me as a friend. Instead, I went to Derek's page, which had a few desperate posts from girls asking "who the lucky girl was." The Triple Threat Touchdown's page was nearly the same, with girls lamenting the loss of Johnny and Derek as free men, but saying that PJ and Tank were still open. And honestly, I liked the fact that they knew he was mine, even if they didn't know who I was.

This morning, I'd felt good. I felt like nothing could hold me back at all. But then I remembered that I was supposed to have an appointment with Dr. Baird. My mother was coming to pick me up. Derek offered to drive me over to her house, but she declined. She'd never been to Derek's house before, and wanted to see where I was living. I had a feeling that she was going to be thoroughly shocked when she realized that I practically lived in a mansion with my boyfriend-who-was-really-my-fiancé. She knew that Derek's family owned Virtuous cars, but I doubted she imagined a house like this, with an extensive garage and a collection of cars that would shame even the most serious car collectors.

For the first time in years, I spoke to my mother on the phone, giving her step by step instructions to Derek's house. Victoria had hit it off with my mother the night they came over for dinner, and she was excited to have her over. I had the feeling that a part of her was just excited because my mother was about to be another link in the family chain. The rest of the Stantons were instructed to pretend like Derek and I hadn't been engaged. My mother was not supposed to know anything.

I paced by the front door for thirty minutes with Derek leaning against the wall. He'd reached out every now and then, and I'd slap his hand like I was giving him a high five, just to keep the anxiety down. But it still didn't keep me from wearing a rut in the floor. I didn't want mom to think that the Stantons were pretentious, or that I was forgetting my almost humble roots, since it wasn't like my dad didn't make a hefty amount of money. He just didn't make as much as the Stantons, so even to my family, which had been well off, this house was a miracle that they could never hope to afford. Especially now, with my father living alone and my mother contemplating starting a relationship with Jimmy from down the street.

I heard the sound of a car pull up, followed by the slam of a door. I rushed out onto the front porch and squinted down the Yellow Brick Road to see my mom's car. She was standing near it, looking up at the house and then down the road towards the garage, her sunglasses still hiding her eyes, her mouth curved into an _O_ as she took in the house before her.

"Mom!" I called, heading down the steps. "Hi," I said. I went forward to hug her, and she wrapped an arm around my shoulders loosely.

"You told me that they had money," she whispered to me, "but I didn't think you meant that they were probably one of the richest families in Illinois."

"They own a car company," I whispered back. "What did you think?" In my head, Derek laughed softly. I was glad someone was enjoying this. "Come on in, mom. Victoria wants to see you before we go. She really likes you." I smiled. Mom would never admit to it, but she always liked having friends. I think she really hated to feel alone in the world, and just knowing that someone like Victoria considered you a friend was enough to uplift your day a little.

Mom followed behind me as I lead her up into the house. Derek was standing in the doorway. "Ms. Bryson," he said warmly.

"Derek," she returned. Her eyes darted to me for a moment, and then she looked up at my significant and gave him one of her dazzling smiles, the kind that usually wiped a few years off her face. "Call me Amy, okay?"

"Amy?" Victoria called from the kitchen. "Derek, move out of the way and let her in. You will be the death of me," she teased. Derek stepped out of the way and I led my mom into the house. I ignored the expression on her face as she took in the front foyer, carefully decorated with Victoria's artistic eye. Victoria appeared in the kitchen doorway and stepped up to hug my mom. "It's good to see you again. Come in, come in. Do you want a drink or something?"

I wished there was a way to tell Victoria that she was laying it on a bit thick. I doubted that they had regular people visit often, since they were Aces and the only other people I could imagine in this house was Derek's family. So it was forgivable, no matter how awkward it was.

"No, thank you," mom said. "Emily has an appointment that I'm going to take her to. I nearly fell over when I realized that her hearing had returned. It's a miracle, I keep telling her. The doctors said that it would be nearly impossible for her to regain any hearing back at all!"

"Oh, yes!" Victoria agreed enthusiastically. "That's what I told Derek, actually. I said, 'Derek, that's a miracle. You don't forget it, because it doesn't happen often.'" Our eyes met briefly and she gave me a sly wink. Maybe she was better at acting than I gave her credit for.

"Right," I said. "Well, mom, we have to go. We don't want to keep Dr. Baird waiting."

"Good luck!" Victoria called, going to hold the front door open for the both of us. I laid a hand on Derek's arm and stood up on my toes to give him a quick kiss.

"I'll see you when I get back," I told him. He nodded and gave me a smile, and I headed out the door and down to my mother's car. Once the doors were fully closed and she'd backed out of the Stantons' driveway, she looked pointedly at me.

"You didn't tell me that their house was that big! I was sitting here worried that you were getting in their way, but it looks like they have enough room for another ten people to live."

"I don't know if I'd go that far," I told her. "But it _is_ big. I was shocked myself," I told her.

We sat in silence for the majority of the drive, each of us thinking about different things. When we were only a few minutes away from Dr. Baird's office, she glanced at me again. "You didn't show me your room. Do you have your own room, or do you share with Derek?"

A flush immediately bloomed over my cheeks. I was nineteen, so it wasn't like she could tell me what I could and couldn't do. And besides that, we were engaged. Even though my mom didn't know that, I felt like that was a good thing to remember. "They don't have a spare bedroom," I finally answered.

"Well," mom said as she pulled into a parking spot. "Don't do anything you aren't ready for."

"Mom!" I crowed, completely embarrassed. I knew she was just doing what mothers did: she wanted to keep her daughter safe. But it was extremely awkward. Still, I felt like I owed her some sort of explanation. "Derek would never make me do something I didn't want to do." I finally told her. And then, before she could say anything else, I climbed out of the car and slammed the door shut a little too hard.

Thankfully, mom dropped the subject while we were in public, but I was still worried that she'd start talking about it again when we were alone. Hopefully, Dr. Baird would give us plenty to talk about on the drive back. It didn't take long at all for us to be called back, and while we waited, mom and I talked about Derek and whether or not he was planning on going to school, and whether or not I was planning on going to school, when the summer ended.

Finally, Dr. Baird entered the room. He asked me the polite questions that doctors usually ask to make awkward small talk, and then he started giving me tests. I felt like I was there forever as he looked into my ears, looked at old scans and new scans, and subjected me to a sound test where I was supposed to push a button if I heard a sound, which varied from tone and pitch and volume.

I wasn't sure how long it had been from the moment we stepped into the office, but finally, Dr. Baird stood in front of me and mom. He fixed his crooked glasses for the millionth time and stared at the results. "If I didn't see it myself I wouldn't believe it." He said. I liked Dr. Baird; he was an older man, with a slightly shaky voice and a horrible sense of sight, but he was always kind and was always searching to give good news to his patients. "It truly is a miracle, Miss Bryson," he said, giving me a short nod. "It seems that the majority of your hearing has been returned."

That was news to me. I thought _all_ of my hearing had been returned. Was there something that I was still missing? Even though I was grateful that I had earned back something that I'd thought I'd lost completely, but I still felt a little bit of sorrow. There was still something lost to me, something that even Derek couldn't heal. "The majority of it?" I echoed.

"Yes, the majority. It seems that particularly high tones were the ones you missed. Fortunately, these sounds tend to be things such as squeaking door hinges and other things of the like. Voices almost never are that high, unless you like to listen to the opera. Other than that, you're nearly good as new. Either way, Miss Bryson, this is unprecedented. You're a special young lady."

Mom stood up to shake his hand. "Thank you, Dr. Baird," she said. She gathered her purse and jacket. We paid at the window, and went to go sit in the car. I was officially, in the eyes of the public, healed. Emily Bryson was no longer legally deaf. The doors that had seemed glued shut to me had now opened. I could get my license, if I wanted to. Derek would no doubt jump at the chance to give me my very own car. My mom wouldn't doubt that I could live alone. She could trust me, I realized. I could start listening to music again without people questioning me, and I could be the normal person that I'd always wanted.

I couldn't remember the last time I felt so free.

**We're getting to the end of Derek and Emily's story, I think. I can see another few chapters in the future, but I doubt we'll reach thirty (really, I think that would be too long.) Anywho, sorry it's been so long since I've updated.**

**For some reason, I have the strange urge to call you my minions, and I have no clue as to why. Perhaps it is simply because I'm ridiculously tired. But for now, you are my minions, and as my minions, you will ignore any spelling or grammatical errors, because I am a rebel, and I uploaded without editing. Woohoo.**

**Thanks for your continued support. Leave me a review, I'd love to know what you think! Peace (:**


	25. Proposal

**chocolateluvr – I love them too! Thanks! (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_25: Proposal_

I still hadn't managed to get my driver's license, so Derek still had to drop me off at work. A week had passed since my visit with Dr. Baird, who confirmed my hearing at returned nearly in full. There wasn't anything really new to it with the Stantons, who were all aware of the miracle that was Derek, but my mother neither had a breakdown. I got a call from Cal, my mom's ex, who just wanted to congratulate me on my stroke of luck and to tell me that he would always be there for me if I needed anything. Mom called me every chance she got, and hardly texted anymore. She'd given me the week off of work to spend enjoying my "newfound hearing" with Derek.

Today was my first day back, and mom had scheduled me for the afternoon shift. I hadn't seen Xavier since the last time I'd made him mad at me, but I was sure that he knew about my miracle. Mom would have told anyone who would listen, including the people that came into her shop and had no clue who I was. When I told her that, she just said that they had all congratulated her anyway, but that wasn't the point. My mom was just so worked up about it that it was spilling over everywhere. Without a doubt, Xavier knew. And he hadn't said anything to me about it. I figured that my miracle would've reminded him that we were friends.

I leaned over the center console and kissed Derek's cheek. He put his hand on my neck, his thumb tracing over my cheek. "You'll be fine," he said softly. "He might've been mad at you, but everyone moves on at some point. He'll have to get over it eventually, babe. Or he was never your real friend."

I made a noise to signify that I'd heard him. I didn't want to think of Xavier as my ex-best friend. I still wanted him to be my friend. Sure, he might've been interested in me, and I might've led him on without realizing it by not telling him that I was in a committed relationship with Derek, but I didn't want to wonder what he would do when I announced that Derek and I had gotten married. "When did you get so wise?" I asked, unable to keep back my smile.

"My mom has had her moments," he replied brightly. I laughed, and he grinned. I should've known that he would find a way to make me laugh. He always found a way to make me feel better. "Knock 'em dead, Emily." He said, brushing my hair out of my eyes. I got out of the car and headed up onto the sidewalk, but paused at the door. I turned around to see him still sitting there, waiting for me to get into the safety of the shop before he drove away. Feeling a little whimsical, I blew him a kiss. He raised a hand to catch it, gave me a devilish grin, and then backed out of the space and headed down the street. I watched him go, unable to hide the smile on my face, and then stepped into the shop.

I wondered if it was just me, but it almost felt like the atmosphere was different. The shop looked exactly the same as it did when I last saw it. The pianos were in their nook, the guitars in theirs, and the drums in theirs. My mom's office door was propped open, as was the storage room. From there, I could hear the clattering noise that told me that Xavier was probably back their fixing my mother's rearranging. Again.

My eyes scanned over the shop until I realized what was different. Behind the desk, sitting in _my chair_, was a cute little redhead with a smattering of freckles and bright green eyes. "Hi," she said brightly. "Can I help you with something?" She asked. I just stood there, blinking at her. She obviously didn't know who I was, and I had no clue who she was. So why was she sitting in the chair that _very clearly_ had my name written on it. I didn't remember there being a clause on it: "Emily's Butt Only, but only if she's here." Wrong.

I knew it was ridiculous to get all worked up by a chair. In fact, it was childish and immature. I was an engaged, almost perfectly healthy nineteen-year-old, and I was getting upset that she was sitting in my chair. Still, that didn't stop me from narrowing my eyes at her. She stood up, obviously unaware of the tension I felt, and I caught a glimpse of her nametag. So this was the Debbie that my mother had hired to replace me. I cringed inwardly.

"Nope," I said briskly. "I think I can handle everything just fine." I told her. She stopped at the edge of the desk, looking a bit confused. I walked right past her and pushed open mom's office door a little wider. Of course, she was holed up behind her desk, eyes glued to the screen. There was a faint popping sound as she made a match of three or more on her bubble shooter. I collapsed into the chair, and only then did she seem to notice my arrival.

"Emily!" She exclaimed, a smile breaking out on her face. Mom was over the rainbow that I'd gotten most of my hearing returned. I knew that she was being obnoxious about it to her customers and her employees, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that it was going to spill over into _everything_, like her office, which was uncharacteristically tidy. "It's good to see you again."

Without speaking, I quickly signed out, "She's in my chair."

Mom cocked an eyebrow at me. "Honey, it's a chair. Don't be so upset about it. It's a little unbecoming." The edges of her mouth turned down, and for the first time, I noticed the marks of age on my mother's face. Her hip reddish lipstick was feathering a little on her lips, and there were tiny lines at the edges of her mouth and her eyes. "Besides, you don't have to sign anymore."

"I like signing," I stated out loud. "And it's still my chair. It has my name on it." She gave me a pointed look, and I turned my gaze away. So what if I wanted to act like a kid? I didn't like the feeling that was coursing through me. Mom was slowly starting to replace me, I realized. I'd moved out, and she acted like I was someone other than myself. I quit spending all day at the shop, and she hired a peppy redhead to take over my unofficial shift. What was next? Was she going to start renting out my bedroom to tortured artists? Or was she going to suggest that I leave to go to school in some faraway place?

My phone buzzed with an incoming text. I ignored it. Moments later, I felt Derek poking around the edges of my mind. I started talking to him before he could uncover the reason for my unease himself. _Mom's replacing me,_ I told him softly. _She hired someone else, and she's allowed to sit in my chair._

I could feel Derek sighing in my mind. His voice was soft because we were so far away from each other, but his presence was still easy enough to detect. _It's okay, Emily. It's a part of growing up. Your mom still loves you the same. And if you really want, you and I can steal the chair. We'll put it in our bedroom._

I stifled a laugh. At least he didn't say outright that I was being stupid for getting so worked up about a chair. I decided to act like an adult and let it go. It was just my pride that was being hurt, I guess. Xavier used to pretend that the rolling chair was my throne, and mom had even played along. But Debbie didn't know that, so I shouldn't act like she was making some big statement against me.

Derek eventually slipped away and I was left alone in my own mind. Mom didn't say anything and neither did I. Instead, I looked at the pictures she had everywhere. I couldn't remember when most of these were taken, but it had been when I was younger. Before my parents divorced, mom had had the camera with her everywhere. She continued the habit for a little while afterwards, but eventually the camera was no longer the first thing she reached for when we left the house. I didn't really lament the loss of it that much; I had always hated taking pictures, though my mom used to coo that I was so photogenic. I didn't see it.

As the clock continued to tick in what was an almost annoying beat, I heard a male voice say something to Peppy Debbie. It was clearly a male's voice, though it was higher than Derek's, and softer. The voice alone sounded easy, like someone that would be fun to hang out with and would always manage to keep a calm head. And despite the fact that I'd never actually heard his voice, I knew that it was Xavier. It just _sounded_ like him, like that was the voice I'd given him in my own head, if that made any sense.

I wanted to jump up and go say hi to him. I wanted to apologize for not telling him, and for saying that there was really nothing ever between us. I still thought that I was partially right. We had never been exclusive. It was more like we were… experimenting with each other, and by doing that, we'd put our friendship into a very awkward situation. I didn't want to call it a friends with benefits type of thing, because we weren't like that, but we weren't a couple, and we weren't just friends or best friends. We were something new altogether. And then Derek stepped in, and we were no more. I hoped that he would move on, but even as I sat there in my mom's office, I heard the soft way he spoke to Debbie, like there was something there, and I was equally saddened and elated.

Moments later, he poked his head around the corner, mouth already opened to say something, and his eyes landed on me. He froze, and so did I. We were both starting to look over one another. For some reason, I thought that he was going to look different, but he didn't. He was still the same old Xavier, with his glasses, ironic t-shirt and skinny tie combo, gray jeans, and high tops. The only real thing that was different was his facial expression. Instead of looking at me like he was glad to see me, he looked shocked to see me sitting there, as if he'd thought I'd moved out of town.

"Hi," I blurted after a good long awkward moment. He blinked, and I continued to ramble, like I was prone to when I got nervous. I was also painfully aware of the fact that I started running my thumb over the Ace tattoo on my wrist, my nail lightly tracing Derek's name. "I got my hearing back. Well, most of it. Not all of it. I still can't hear really high-pitched sounds. Which, now that I think about it, is probably why I haven't heard any squeaky door hinges."

This time even mom gave me a look that said I needed to shut up and just apologize. "Xavier," I said, lifting my hands as if they would explain everything for me. But I didn't sign, and instead just sat there for a moment. Finally, I managed to force out, "I'm sorry." He'd managed to say the same thing at the same time. I couldn't help but smile, and he met my grin with one of his own.

"Ms. Bryson," Debbie said suddenly, standing next to Xavier and trying to peek over his shoulder. "I'm leaving. Jimmy has me set for the afternoon shift at the coffee shop. Do you want me to bring you guys anything while I'm on break?"

"No, thank you, Debbie," she replied. Debbie nodded, her smile still plastered to her face. She whispered a soft goodbye to Xavier, and then she was gone. I couldn't help but watch her go. It was a good thing, I thought, if she and Xavier got involved. The two of them might be perfect for each other. And if Xavier could get his mind off of me and focus on someone else, our friendship might be healed. It already seemed like it was well on its way, but maybe it needed a final push that only Peppy Debbie could supply.

"Well," I said, "I should probably get out there." Mom nodded, and I stepped out into the shop, placed my bag under the desk, and booted up the computer. I tamped down on the little burst of anger when I realized that Debbie had rearrange my icons, which I moved back into their rightful place. Hopefully she would get the message and would realize that even though I didn't throw a fit about her sitting in my chair, I might not hesitate to complain about her messing with my carefully organized computer.

Xavier followed me and leaned against the counter, like he used to. The fact that just apologizing had started to heal the rift made me smile. He really was my friend, and not just a guy that wanted me for secret kisses in the back room. "So," he said conversationally. He looked a little at a loss for words. I could understand. What do you say to someone you thought wouldn't ever get the chance to hear you? "I'm glad you got your hearing back. Your mom keeps saying that you're her miracle."

"So I've heard. Before long, people I don't even know will be aware of the fact that once-deaf Emily Bryson can hear again. Not that it really matters in the long run," I shrugged. "But I guess for us, it really is something special." Xavier smiled at me, and we continued talking.

Half of my shift had passed before someone came in and Xavier stepped off to the side. The moment he was gone, I eyed the sign I'd put up saying that I was deaf. I reached out and began to peel at the tape, ignoring the sound of the bell. I didn't have the urge to check the security screen underneath the counter repeatedly, since I could hear the bell, now. Ripping the sign off of the top of the counter, I leaned down to toss it in the trash can, and when I sat up, someone was standing at the counter.

When I realized who it was, I almost jumped out of my chair and told her to get out, because she wasn't supposed to be lingering around. Derek had told me that the Visionary's rival clan had done some pretty awful things to her, which came out during the last reunification. Apparently, they'd kidnapped her, drugged her, and tortured her by leaving her in a darkened, dirty well for hours on end. They chased her in her dreams, and attempted to kill her later on. I couldn't see my once best friend doing that to me, but Bailey was a rival now, and that meant that I couldn't trust her. Aces were bound by family, and if Bailey's family hated mine, she was supposed to hate me and I was supposed to hate her. I didn't like it, but it would be the most cautious path to take.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed, searching for Xavier. If she tried to do something to me, Xavier might be able to help me until Derek got there to swoop in like my knight in shining armor. My entire body was tense as she looked me up and down. The last time she had seen me, Derek and I were newly ascended. I left my hands out on top of the corner, wrists turned a little outward. At first, I'd been shy that all of the other Aces could see that I'd mutualized with Derek by the tattoo on my skin, but now I was proud of it, since every imprinted Ace I'd met had one. Her eyes locked in on it, and then she looked up to meet my gaze.

"I have a proposal for you," she said softly. For a split second, she looked like the Bailey I remembered from when we were little kids. I'd been the outgoing one, and she'd been the shy one. I'd seen remnants of that girl in her eyes for just a moment, and then they hardened and she glanced away. "Meet me at the club Derek's band played at last at ten tonight. Bring Derek. And please, don't tell anyone else. I'm not doing this because I'm trying to attack you or whatever. I just… I need to offer a proposal, and that's all."

I looked into her eyes, trying my best to see if she was telling the truth. I knew there was a way of finding out if what she was saying was real, but it would require using my abilities to find out. While I wasn't partial to using them against someone else, I would rather find out if Bailey was lying. She had no idea what my ability was, so she didn't know how to block me, if there was a way. My decision was made almost before I realized it. My hand reached out to grab a hold of her wrist. Her eyes shot to me, and for a fraction of a second, I saw fear flash in her eyes. It was almost enough to make me let go, but I remembered that I was doing this to protect not only myself but Derek as well, so I held on tight.

"Tell me: are you telling the truth?" I asked. Bailey stood there, her eyes glued to mine. I could feel the way my ability was pressing against her, invading her mind in a way that wasn't welcoming in the least. I didn't release her in case I needed to ask a follow-up question.

"Yes," she answered.

"Be truthful. Is there any danger awaiting Derek or me tonight if we go to meet you? Have you told anyone of your plans?"

"No danger," she said quietly. "I haven't told anyone. They'd hate me if I told them." I could see in her eyes that she was sincere, and since I'd compelled her to tell the truth, I had to trust in her. Or, rather, I had to trust in my ability. Derek would be proud of me when I told him.

"Okay. I'll talk to Derek. If we're not there by 10:15, we're not showing up." I told her seriously. I wanted to make it extremely clear that she was not going to pull the wool over my eyes. Even though she hadn't told anybody yet, and she hadn't had an ambush set in place, there was still plenty of time between now and then to do those things. I wasn't stupid. I'd seen the latest action movies, even though I'd had to read the subtitles.

She nodded. "I hope to see you then." With that, she turned and left the store. I watched her go, watched her walk until I couldn't see her anymore, and then I looked at Xavier. He hadn't noticed in the least. I couldn't decide if that was good or bad.

# # #

I was right, Derek was proud of me for thinking to use my ability. He agreed with me, though, that Bailey could've been truthful then and gotten things lined up after he left. But he took her seriously, which was something that I wasn't sure if I would see. I figured that he might be, because he would do anything to protect me, and Bailey was a rival to us. Any threat made by her should be taken seriously. But then, it wasn't a threat, and since she seemed to be acting out aside from her family, it could've just been a joke to her. She could've just been trying to scare us into an uproar. I wasn't sure, and neither was he, and we weren't too eager to try it out.

In the end, Derek and I decided to go to the meeting, but we would be ready. The only ascended significants in Bailey's family were adults, who we would see coming. Bailey had said to meet in the band's alley, where Derek and the guys had parked just the other day. It was open on both ends, and since Derek and I had our abilities, we were fairly confident in the fact that we would be able to get away if we were ambushed. Besides, I thought, making an attempt to do something to us would probably end up badly. Distantly, the Visionary and I were somewhat related, and I'd heard that she didn't take too kindly to families beating up on one another. If Bailey's family _did_ do anything against us, Derek and I were confident that the Visionary would do whatever she could to punish them.

Still, the thought alone didn't quell our nerves as we neared the band alley. It was just a little after ten, so the alleys were empty and the clubs were just starting to fill up. There would be plenty of people to call to for help if we needed it. I wondered if Bailey had chosen this place just because of that, like maybe we'd feel like it was more real if it was in a public area. My fingers were weaved with Derek's, calming thoughts being pushed from one to the other as we drew closer.

Derek pulled into the alley. Bailey was already there, wearing a hooded jacket. The car headlights spotlighted her, and she straightened up as we opened our doors. I looked around, my eyes scanning the roof as I climbed out of Derek's door, unwilling to let go of him even to get out of the car. We stood against the Trans Am. I felt a little safer with it at my back.

"What did you call us out here for, Bailey?" Derek asked. He didn't sound stressed out in the least. He sounded confident. As my thought reached him, his hand squeezed mine. I should've trusted that he had this under control.

Bailey stepped forward, just a step, but enough that Derek and I tensed a little more. "I can't keep you two a secret from my family. They'd want to know, and I could get in trouble for keeping it a secret. They'll find out at the next reunification, and if they hear that I've known all along, they'll be mad that they didn't already know. We're supposed to know everything about each other, remember? We're supposed to be enemies."

"I'm well aware of the circumstances surrounding our families." Derek replied in a clipped tone. "But what, exactly, are you proposing?"

Bailey looked up to meet us, and I was shocked to see tears in her eyes. "Sometimes I've looked at my family, and I haven't exactly been happy with what I've seen. They're not the best of people," she said softly. "My aunt used to be a Watson," she added, "and she was furious when they were stripped of their abilities. My family doesn't forgive discretions against them. I've heard that the Visionary and her significant have been traveling the world. I kind of want out," she said. "My proposal is that I won't tell my family about you two, and when they find out I'll do my best to keep them away from you. In return, I want your help. If I ever come to you needing assistance to get away, you have to promise to help me."

_What do you think?_ I asked, pushing my thought towards Derek.

_I'm not sure what to think. She's right about Maggie and Caleb choosing to stray away from the usual traditions of the Aces. And maybe she does want to get away from them. Even when we were kids, she always seemed nice enough. We weren't allowed to be friends, but I used to wish that I could at least talk to her._

_She was nice when I was friends with her,_ I replied, _at least, until the accident where I lost my hearing. Sometimes I wonder if her parents made her ignore me. They were never the nicest people._ We both sat there silently for a little while. I got a glimpse of Bailey when we were in elementary school, except she was wearing a dress that I'd never seen, in a huge dining room that I'd never laid eyes on. I figured that it must've been a scene from one of the reunifications that she and Derek had attended when they were children. _So what do we do?_

_Honestly? I think she's being truthful. We haven't been attacked. As long as she upholds her end of the deal, we can promise to uphold ours. Mom and dad might be a little upset at first, but they'll probably see that it's the wise move in the long run._ His thumb smoothed over the back of my hand.

He stepped forward a little. "Alright, Bailey, you've got yourself a deal. But Emily and I will only agree to it if you promise to try your best to keep your family away from us. And remember, Maggie doesn't look kindly on those that attack others in the sake of the family name." He raised an eyebrow at her, and Bailey nodded.

"I'm aware of where the Visionary stands," she said softly. "Thank you. I wanted to insure that I would have a way out. My parents could cut off my account, and they might be able to track me or something. I don't know if my family will ever get their imprints back, but I know that I don't fit in with them the way they want me to."

Derek nodded. Bailey gave us a half-hearted smile, and then she tugged on her jacket hood and disappeared to the other end of the alley. Derek and I watched her go, and when she was out of sight, we turned to look at each other.

"Well," I said, "I wasn't expecting that."

"Neither was I," Derek replied. "But I guess that if I looked hard enough, I might've seen it coming. She never really was like her parents or her cousins." He mused. He looked down at me and grinned. "I think we've actually done a good thing. We can go home and tell my parents about the deal. They'll support us, I'm sure of it. And besides that," he lowered his voice and leaned closer to me, our breath mingling together, "we've got a wedding to finish planning."

**What do you think? Leave me a review in the box below. Thanks for reading; you're awesome! Peace (:**


	26. I Do

**You guys! I do believe that this is the last chapter. What better way to end Emily and Derek's story than their wedding, hmm? (:**

**The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.**

_26: I Do_

A week had passed since Derek and I had made a deal with Bailey. When we came home, Jack had known something was up immediately. While Derek went to find his parents, Jack pestered me with questions. I went to the kitchen and got an orange soda for Derek, because I could tell that he needed a caffeine boost as much as I did. When we finally got Victoria and Robert to the living room, Jack had collapsed onto the couch and Madison had slunk out of her bedroom. Carissa was out, and Zach was studying. It almost felt like a normal family meeting, if that made any sense.

I let Derek explain the conversation we'd had with Bailey. At first, Robert was angry, saying that he couldn't believe that she had the audacity to seek me out and deliver a cryptic message. Victoria, though, managed to keep calm and reminded him that Bailey had just wanted to talk to us in private, in place where we could discuss Ace issues without being overheard. Victoria continued to say that at least she'd chosen a public place, so we were safer, and she hadn't approached us with any contempt. She only wanted to get away from her family. How could we deny her something like that?

Eventually, Robert calmed down and acknowledged that Derek had made the right decision. We all agreed that we weren't sure if we could trust her completely. For all we knew, she could've already told her family that Derek and I had imprinted, but at least we were already ascended and could protect ourselves. We had to have a little faith that Bailey would remember what it was like when we were friends. It made me wonder what the point of clan rivalries were; Derek and Bailey hadn't been allowed to be friends when they were kids, but maybe it was my friendship with her that would save us. I couldn't help but think that maybe the rules against intermingling were a little too strict. I didn't voice my thoughts because we were all a little on edge.

But now, after a week, Robert had calmed down and stopped acting like there was an enemy on every street corner, and Victoria was already preparing for if Bailey stopped by. She said that if she did decide to leave her family, it was likely that they wouldn't do anything to help her. It meant that she'd be cut off from any assets, meaning her bank account would be closed and she would probably only be able to take what she managed to stockpile with her. Victoria had set off to put aside a little money each month in case Bailey needed it, along with Carissa's cast-off clothes, Madison's least favorite shoes, and even a few things from my own closet.

Around Victoria's preparing and Robert's constant security, we continued to plan a wedding. The guys didn't have much say in it, and Victoria had sort of taken over, not that I minded. More often than not, I'd walk into the kitchen to find the two of them pouring over magazines and cookbooks. I wasn't really sure what they were planning for. In an Ace wedding, the bride and groom wore red to symbolize the blood that tied us together, and Derek's uncle would be the one doing the ceremony at his house because he was the leader. But Victoria wanted to put in some regular human aspects into the wedding as well, going so far as to ask me to choose flowers, food, and even napkins. She eventually dragged me out of bed at the crack of dawn and shuffled me off to the mall to find a dress.

Derek and I started keeping secrets from one another. They weren't anything big, I knew. Victoria didn't want Derek to see the dress I'd picked out, and I'd been told that Derek was supposed to give me a house for a wedding gift. If he did decide to follow the traditions, he'd already gotten me a house and had probably furnished it as well, since he was supposed to carry me over the threshold so we could start our new lives together after our wedding.

Our wedding, which was happening tonight right before the sun set completely. I'd already told my mom that Derek's uncle was throwing a party, and that she should be there around seven. I'd discussed it with Derek, and we decided that it would probably help to mend the relationship between me and Xavier if we invited him. It turned out that I was right about Xavier; he had a massive crush on Debbie, and it was possible that she liked him back. A part of me was extremely wound up. Both of my parents were instructed to come to Derek's uncle's house at seven, and they'd promised that they were going to be there. I was worried about what they were going to say when they found out that I'd gotten married without telling them. They couldn't do much, I figured, since I was nineteen. I just didn't want to be estranged from my family.

"Close your eyes," Madison instructed. I did as she said, and she swiped a powder brush over my nose and cheeks. Victoria and Madison had descended within the hour after Derek and I woke up. I was told to shower and get dressed in whatever I had lying around, and I wasn't supposed to do my hair or put any makeup on. I did just that, and ended up at the site of my wedding looking like a hot mess. Victoria and Madison shuffled me up the stairs to one of the spare bedrooms, where they proceeded to brush and dry and curl my hair. I'd shimmied into my satiny soft red dress, and now they were smearing bright red lipstick on my lips and carefully lining my eyes with a liquid pen. All day, aunts and cousins were in and out of the room, offering bits of food or a glass of water or anything to make me comfortable. Some of them even sat in the room and told me stories about what Derek had been like when he was little. Some of their stories I remembered in snapshots, calling the memories up like they were my own. It was a little strange, to be honest, but within hours, I no longer felt like I was just an additive to the family. They had actually considered me a Stanton for a long time, and now was just the first time they'd seen me long enough to really talk to me.

I hadn't seen Derek in a few hours, and I already missed him more than anything. Occasionally, they gave me a break, which I would spend by the window, looking out in the backyard. Uncles and even more cousins were in the backyard, hanging the chain lights that Victoria had ordered in the trees just like she'd instructed. The next time I looked out the window, they were setting up tables and taping soft white tablecloths to the underside of the tables, and then they were setting out my red and white rose bouquets. I would've never thought that I'd see so many men preparing for a wedding, but I was.

Finally, it got to the point where I wasn't allowed to look out the window anymore, and after closing my eyes and concentrating a little bit, I could sense Derek standing in the backyard. Apparently, I wasn't allowed to see him. It wasn't much longer until I was spirited down the stairs and to the back door. Victoria had decided to incorporate Ace weddings with human ones, so while I was wearing a red dress, I was given a white rose bouquet, and I was supposed to walk down the narrow aisle up to Derek, where we would exchange our vows and trade rings.

"Ready?" Victoria asked. Her eyes were already wet with tears. She gave me a crushing hug, and I could tell that she was trying to make up for the fact that my mother wasn't here to cry over me and my father wasn't here to walk me down the aisle.

"You look beautiful," Madison said from beside me. She smiled at me brightly. I could see the hope in her eyes. For her, her brother's marriage signified the future that she might be able to have. Maybe one day, _she'd_ be the one wearing a red dress, and I'd be the one telling her that she looked gorgeous.

Carissa grinned at me as she held out the small bouquet I was supposed to carry. I didn't have any bridesmaids or anything like that, since I'd wanted to stick with an Ace wedding over the traditional human one. "Go on," Victoria said. Robert held out his elbow and I wrapped my hand around his arm, and he led me down the aisle.

I looked up towards the end of it. Derek was standing there, wearing a bright red shirt and black pants, his feet bare like mine. His hair blew in the gentle breeze, and he smiled wider than I'd ever seen before. _You look beautiful, babe_.

_You don't look so bad yourself._ I replied, and was shocked to find that the moment the words were spoken in my mind, tears sprang to my eyes. I guess it hadn't really hit me that I was going to get married until I was facing it, literally. There wasn't any time to think about it, not that I wanted to, because I knew that this was what I wanted. But I still hadn't realized that I was going through the motions of planning my wedding without getting emotionally involved in it. As I stepped up in front of Derek, he swiped his thumb under my eye, catching any fallen tears.

Before I knew it, he'd slipped a beautiful ring onto my finger, and I put the ring I'd chosen out for him on his. We sealed our marriage with a deal, and that was that. I was married. Emotional swelled in my stomach, pressing in on my chest, as I smiled and laughed and cried with joy. Derek and I were instructed to take pictures with Carissa, who had taken a few photography classes, while everyone else removed the chairs and the signs that the wedding had occurred and prepared to make it look specifically like it was merely a reception. We needed to fool my parents and my friends, and that meant that they weren't supposed to know that I'd only gotten married an hour before.

"Do you like it?" Derek asked as we sat on the couch, sitting as close as humanly possible. I rested my head on his shoulder and held out my left hand. Derek had picked out a ring that was absolutely beautiful. It glittered in the light and was clearly expensive, but he'd chosen one that was simple. It was absolutely perfect. I pushed that thought to him. "I saw it and I just knew," he said softly.

I wrapped my hand around his, my thumb pressing the silver titanium ring I'd chosen. It was stronger than regular silver, the saleslady had said. On the inside I'd added a flame that was like the one around my wrist, like the one on the necklace I wore around my neck. Derek leaned over to kiss me. Electricity shot through my veins and hovered over my skin as his fingers knotted into my hair. His other hand remained on my wrist as I grabbed a hold of his shirt. I felt the beginnings of our minds melding, the feelings intensifying. But then he broke away and smiled at me. "Not now," he whispered softly. "We have our entire lives."

I grinned at him. "Yeah, we do."

# # #

The party was in full swing by the time my mother dropped by. With her was Xavier, and with him was Debbie. "Hi," I said brightly. I didn't try to hide the ring that now adorned my left fourth finger. I was in too good of a mood, and honestly, this whole party was actually my wedding reception. I wrapped my mom in a hug.

"Well, hi, honey," she said with a smile. "To be honest, I was surprised to hear that there was a party that you wanted me to come to. And we had such a hard time finding this place." She said. "Can you tell me what all of this is for?" She asked.

Excitement and worry clashed together inside me. I was over the moon that we'd gotten married, but I was worried about what my mom was going to say. I didn't want her to get mad at me, and I didn't want to see her cry because of something I'd done. Derek showed up right at that moment and put his arm around my waist. "Mom," I said, "can you wait until dad gets here?"

"You invited your father?" She asked. Mom didn't look worried, but there was a little tightening in the skin around her eyes. They hadn't had a blow-out divorce, and they talked on the phone like civil people whenever they needed to discuss me, but they hadn't been in the same place at the same time since their mediation where they divvied up their property, including me.

"Yeah," I said, "he has a right to be here, too, mom." I reminded gently. She opened her mouth to reply when there was another ring on the doorbell. I went to answer the door, and, right on time, was my father. He was still dressed in his suit from his day at work. I greeted him, and the moment he stepped in his eyes met with my mom's, and the entire room seemed to freeze for a moment while they looked at each other.

"Okay, well," I said, "Derek and I have something to tell you." I said. I winced when I realized how those words sounded. Xavier's eyes grew to be the size of plates, my dad glared at Derek, and mom stared at my stomach. "Okay, stop looking at me like that. I'm not pregnant, jeez." I held out my left hand. "Derek and I went to the justice of the peace earlier today. We're married." I said. I'd planned to give it to them gently, but I didn't like the way that they'd looked at us like we were insane.

Dad froze. Mom froze. Xavier looked away, his hand tightening into a fist. I knew he wasn't still mad at me, because over the past week we'd patched our friendship back together pretty well, but I should've expected that he wouldn't be pleased. Just because he wasn't mad at me didn't mean he wasn't mad at Derek.

"You're so young." Mom said finally.

I shrugged. "I might be wrong, but I knew that it was the right thing to do. I told you before that what we have isn't a joke or a game. It's real. It's lasting. I promise." I said, reaching out to squeeze Derek's hand. "So this party is for us. We told his family and they decided to throw a party for us. And I invited you, because I want you to be a part of my life, even if you aren't happy with all of my decisions. But I hope you are."

Dad took a deep breath. "I'm not mad at you, Emily. I just wish you would've told us. Your mom and I just want you to be happy," he stated. He even looked at mom to see if she agreed. She gave a slight nod to signify that she did, which was good. If they were agreeing with each other, then we were on the right path.

"I can't be mad at you when you're happy." Mom said. She stepped forward and hugged me, and then hugged Derek. Derek looked a little surprised, but he hugged her back, and even whispered in her ear that he would take care of me, no matter what. She smiled at him, tears in her eyes. My parents may not have been thrilled, but they accepted my choices, and that said a lot. My dad shook Derek's hand and didn't look like he wanted to kill him, so I figured that we were in the clear.

"Enjoy the party, okay? Victoria and Robert are over there, and there's this huge food buffet starting in the kitchen." I told them. Mom went off to find Victoria, and dad stood there a little uncomfortably until Robert came up and started talking business with him. He led him off towards the collection of uncles in the corner. I would have to thank him later for distracting my dad and making him feel welcome by talking about the only thing he truly liked to talk about: business, and cars.

_That went better than I thought it would._ I told Derek. _I was a little worried that dad would want to punch you in the face, or that mom would start screaming._

He smiled at me. _They're happy for you. You know how much they love you._

_I know_. I kissed his cheek. Xavier and Debbie were talking amongst themselves, but they hadn't gone very far. Xavier kept turning to give us a few looks, but they weren't glares, so that was something. Derek and I were flooded with family members wanting to congratulate us. Finally, they swept past and we were left alone.

But we were only left alone for a moment before someone threw an arm around Derek's neck. "Hey, man!" Johnny crowed in his ear. The blue streaks in his hair looked particularly bright in the lights. "So are you going to tell me what this party is for, yet? You invited us a week ago but it's not your birthday."

Derek reached for my hand. I gave it to him, and he held it out in front of all of his friends. "We went to the justice of the peace today," he lied smoothly.

"Whoa, you got hitched?" Johnny shouted. "Funny thing, too," he said. Tory stepped up beside him and held out her left hand. On her fourth finger was a ring with a small diamond, simple and beautiful.

"I was right!" She said, nudging me. The two of us hugged each other while the rest of the band congratulated us. Eventually, I introduced Xavier and Debbie to the band, and they seemed a little more at peace with the fact that there were people their age at the party.

We spent a good chunk of the night eating and talking and laughing, and it was perfect. Just perfect.

# # #

"Go home and get some rest," Victoria said. She still looked happy, but I could tell that she was tired. She had put a lot of time and effort into making sure that today went flawlessly, and she'd done well. I had just told her that, and she'd just smiled and told me that Derek and I needed to go home and get some sleep. I hugged her goodbye, just like I'd hugged my parents, the band, and even Xavier earlier, and Derek led me out to the Trans Am. Someone had written on the windows with window paint: _Just Married!_ with little hearts all over the place.

Derek opened the door for me and climbed in on his side. He didn't start the car right away, though, and instead started digging through his pockets. "I love you, Emily Stanton." He said with a smile. He lifted up a keychain with my new initials – E.S. – engraved on it. "Here is the key to our house. Are you ready to go start our lives together?" He teased.

I leaned forward, wrapped my hand around the keys, and kissed him long and hard. "I've never been more ready."

_The End._

**Holy. Cow. It's over. What did you guys think, huh? Bittersweet, like I always say when it comes to the end of my fanfics. I'm sort of glad to have it over. It feels good to have finished something. But sad at the same time.**

**Never fear, though, there's a spinoff of this story that I'm planning to upload once I finish a few more chapters on it. I've already completed the first two. It's an experimental story involving Jack, Derek's younger brother. So keep checking back for it, okay?**

**Please, please, leave me a review in the box below. I'd love to see what you have to say. If you want an answer from me directly, PM it to me and I'll probably be quick at getting it back to you. I want to thank you guys so much for sticking with me all the way through. You guys are awesome.**

**Thanks! PEACE (:**


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